
Stricken Russian Nuke Sub Crew Prevented ‘Planetary Catastrophe’ - perfunctory
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/stricken-russian-nuke-sub-crew-prevented-planetary-catastrophe
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deehouie
I found the sub-story more fascinating than the nuclear incidence. If I
understand it correctly, one purpose of these "research" submarines is to find
and possibly sabotage undersea communication lines. Well, talk about national
security threat, isn't this a very serious threat to the Internet? I'd love to
see more articles about this vector of attack.

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notinversed
The primary role of subs has been intelligence for as long as subs have
existed. One of the first missions subs carried out in WW1 was cutting
undersea cables.

Despite all the undue attention placed on the combat U-Boats and their limited
success in sinking merchant ships, the history of submarines is primarily the
history of getting in good positions to tap cables or radio frequencies or put
people in places.

There is very little need for torpedoes or missiles anymore, outside of
creating dramatic scenes in the movies.

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taheca
Well, I mean a third of the US Nuclear arsenal is on Boomer subs, so that is
not exactly true.

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notinversed
The nuclear deterrence is definitely a capability and something they drill on
regularly, but at the end of the day it's a low priority mission, even on a
modern nuclear attack sub.

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auslander
Sub is unusual, with depth of 2500m (6000m in article). Made from several
steel spheres.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_submarine_Losharik](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_submarine_Losharik)

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woodandsteel
I wonder how big this sub is. I say that because as far as I know nuclear
submarines are all full-sized. But maybe I'm wrong and this is a mini-sub that
had a small crew.

