The picture to the left is a Russian Class Nuclear powered submarine. The picture to the right is a Nuclear Powered submarine belonging to China.Once again, the U.S. Navy is in the news. Evidently, we, as a nation have forgot the lessons that we learned 66 years and 70 days ago in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Two of the largest U.S. Naval seaports are located in San Diego and San Francisco, California. Each of these ports have a large naval surface and submarine fleet operating from them, including our aircraft carrier task forces. Unlike Pearl Harbor, these ports provide easy and fast access to the open sea where they can begin imediate operations in the event of an emergency.
Late Monday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled in favor of Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmentalist group. The National Enviromental Policy Act and a court imposed injunction created a 12 nautical mile no-sonar zone along the coastline of California. President George Bush signed a waiver on January 15th exempting the Navy and it's anti-submarine warfare policy from a preliminary injunction creating the no-sonar zone.
Even those not familar with sonar and anti-submarine warfare, one has to wonder how many nuclear powered submarines capable of launching nuclear weapons can be parked in a zone that is 12 nautical miles wide along our coastline. One submarine parked ten miles off the coast of San Diego could take out Washington D.C. and New York City with one launch. For that matter, how many smaller submarines can be parked in this area in wait for our surface fleet to sortie from port. For the U.S. Navy to comply with the NEPA, the surface fleet is sonar defenseless from the time they leave port until they clear the twelve mile zone. The U.S. Navy learned a valuable lesson in World War II and the development of sonar detection. Today, the sonar unit is activated on these ships as soon as the word is passed that the ship is underway. Until that sonar is activated, the fleet is blind from any danger that may lurk beneath the waves.
In the event you are asking yourself why was this zone was established? Simply to protect the whales which may or may not be affected by sonar, as there is no biological data available. However, the whales are protected only when they are in the coastal waters of the Great State of California.
The Russian and naval submarine fleets of China are not the only submarines lurking in our sea lanes. A large number of "old" diesel powered submarines were sold by all nations to smaller countries like Iran, Sauia Arabia, etc. If one of these were to fall into the wrong hands, putting a couple of torpedos into the hull of an American super carrier would be a coup. Perhaps, a terrorist torpedo into the hull of a super tanker off the coast of California would wake some people up.
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