(personal)

Thanks, Brian.

I am one of the Russians on the list, and I certainly did not appreciate
this piece of political Cold-war era style junk.

Mike Khusid
Signal Integrity Engineer
Sitara Networks, Inc.



Brian Ellis wrote:
>
> 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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>
> --
> Brian Ellis
> Protonique SA
> PO Box 78
> CH-1032 Romanel-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland
> Voice: +41 21-648 23 34 Fax: +41 21-648 24 11
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> URL: Technical and consultancy divisions:
>        http://www.protonique.com
>      Web services division:
>        http://www.protonique.com/webserv

--
Brian Ellis
Protonique SA
PO Box 78
CH-1032 Romanel-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland
Voice: +41 21-648 23 34 Fax: +41 21-648 24 11
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: Technical and consultancy divisions:
       http://www.protonique.com
     Web services division:
       http://www.protonique.com/webserv

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