I'm sorry, Werner, but I must disagree with you, for once. I believe it
is totally misplaced to post such a message here, especially as most of
it is pure political speculation, without a microgram of scientific
proof. This kind of tirade is not going to go down well with the
Russians who read TechNet
Sorry
Brian
Werner Engelmaier wrote:
>
> The Kursk's dark mission
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> K-141 is down. The Kursk, an Antyey type 949A nuclear attack submarine,
> was lost in the Barents Sea. The Kursk, one of eight active Oscar II class
> submarines, was the pride of the Russian navy and the leading edge of the new
> Northern Fleet.
> Commissioned in 1995, the Kursk was the Northern Fleet's most powerful
> weapon. It made a high-profile voyage to the Mediterranean in September 1999
> and was due to return later this year as part of a planned Russian nuclear
> task group deployment to the Middle East. The August Russian naval exercise
> in the Barents Sea was designed to provide the West with good reason to
> remember the Kursk.
> Reports now show the exercise was intended to showcase the Kursk as she
> performed her two primary roles, killing American carriers and submarines.
> The Russian navy exercise also drew a small crowd of interested observers in
> the form of two U.S. Los Angeles attack submarines, loitering in the shallow
> polar sea over 50 miles from the Kursk.
> That fateful morning the Kursk reportedly completed a successful firing
> of her main killer, the Chelomey Granit missile, NATO code-named SS-N-19
> Shipwreck. The Kursk and her sister boats carry 24 Shipwreck missiles. The
> missiles are stored on each side of the huge submarine in banks of 12, hidden
> between the layers of the boat's thick twin hull skin. The Shipwreck missiles
> are stored in launching tubes external to the inner pressure hull where the
> 118 crewmembers worked and lived.
> The Shipwreck missile fired by the Kursk that Saturday morning
> contained a 1,600-pound conventional warhead. It reportedly scored a direct
> hit against a Russian hulk target over 200 miles away. The Shipwreck is
> intended to strike U.S. carriers but can also be targeted against U.S.
> cities. Russian naval sources indicate that the Shipwreck
> missile can be armed with an H-bomb warhead equal to one half million tons of
> TNT, more than enough to flatten Los Angeles or New York City.
> That fateful August Saturday, in the dim afternoon light of the arctic
> summer sun, the Kursk began her last performance, the simulated destruction
> of a U.S. submarine using the 100-RU Veder missile. The Veder, NATO
> code-named SS-N-16A Stallion, is a rocket-boosted torpedo. The Stallion is
> launched from the huge 26-inch diameter torpedo tubes installed on each Oscar
> II class submarine.
> The Stallion is so secret that no picture of the weapon has ever been
> published. The Stallion is fired from the submarine's torpedo tube but flies
> like a missile. The Stallion rocket booster ignites underwater once the
> weapon is clear of the submarine, sending the missile to the surface. The
> missile then flies to the target under rocket power where it finally ejects a
> lightweight torpedo at supersonic speed.
> The mini-torpedo then uses its own little parachute, slowing to drop
> gently into the water directly above the target. The mini-torpedo then homes
> in on the target submarine for the final kill. The conventional Stallion
> fired by the Kursk was armed with a mini-220 pound explosive warhead. Jane's
> Defense reports that the missile can also be armed with a mini-nuclear
> warhead equal to 200,000 tons of TNT.
> According to Jane's, the last moments of the Kursk were recorded as she
> prepared to fire the Stallion. Seismologists in Norway told Jane's that a
> monitoring station registered two explosions at the time the Kursk sank. The
> first registered 1.5 on the Richter scale. A second, stronger explosion
> measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale equivalent to one to two tons of TNT was
> recorded just over two minutes later.
> The Stallion rocket motor may have ignited inside the sealed torpedo
> tube just before firing. The Stallion may have jammed itself inside the
> torpedo tube as it was fired. In any event, the underwater rocket appears to
> have ignited inside the inner manned pressure hull.
> The force of the Stallion rocket motor would have twisted the huge
> torpedo tube, melting through the metal walls within seconds. Just enough
> time for alarms to sound and men to die. Then the small 220-pound warhead
> exploded, blowing a gaping hole in the twisted skin of the attack submarine.
> The submarine immediately fell forward as the icy water rushed to fill the
> forward weapon bay.
> The last moments of the Kursk and most of her crew were filled with
> fire and ice as the vessel plunged into the cold arctic depths. The rush of
> cold water did not extinguish the fire since the Stallion rocket booster was
> designed to burn without air. The exploding warhead would have sent huge
> flaming chunks of the rocket booster into the forward weapon control room.
> The force of the 14,000-ton submarine striking the bottom on the
> damaged torpedo bay was the final blow, detonating one of the many weapons
> inside upon impact. The force of the explosion inside the twin hull submarine
> ripped the starboard side open back to the sail. The manned areas forward of
> the reactor compartment, including the control room and living quarters,
> rapidly flooded, leaving no time for personnel in those compartments to
> escape.
> This may not be the end of the story. There are now suggestions that
> the West should help Russia raise the Kursk. Yet, despite being broke, Russia
> continues to build and deploy the Oscar II submarine force. There are seven
> active Oscar II class boats. The latest, K-530 the Belgorod, is still under
> construction at the Severodvinsk Shipyard. Budget cutbacks have slowed
> progress on the boat to a standstill but construction continues. There are
> rumors that China is interested in buying K-530.
> The Kursk sailed the Mediterranean in late 1999 as a show of flag to
> Russian allies such as Syria, Libya and Serbia. At the same time the Kursk
> was touring the Mediterranean in 1999, a Pacific Fleet Oscar II submarine was
> quietly cruising the western seaboard of the United States, within missile
> range of California, Oregon and Washington.
> While we all mourn the passing of K-141 and her crew, we should also
> reflect on exactly what her mission was.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Charles Smith is a national security and defense reporter for
> WorldNetDaily.
>
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