Yes back when akula II's come out they did have problems trailing them thier signature is a tad better than that of a 688i and this also goes for akula i improved also but the akula II is a bit quieter, the yasen is quieter still but i would speculate still not as quiet as a virginia astute or even a seawolf.

Given the fact the akulas have been around now for what 25 years so they are getting old and sonar tech has some what advanced since the 90's, besides how do we know its an akula?

The russians do have other types of submarine they can use they still have victor III's a sierra II hell even an Oscar II without knowing the platform i guess we can only speculate.

There was an instance in the 1980's i did read this from a few american captains sort of biographys from i think it was norman polmar who wrote the book, but there was one particular captain he commanded a victor III submarine and every time a western submarine found him he would quickly disapear and be lost for good, but the thing is i would like to meet that captain to see how he did it because yes the russian boats are technologically inferior to the west but thier weapons are not i mean SS-N-19 has no comparison in the western world exocet doesnt even come close and harpoon pfft forget it.

There was another incident regarding the kursk in 1999 when she deployed to the med the amerians pulled thier ships from the med and tried to chase her down, she was only spotted on the surface some 400 miles from the coast of canada some three weeks later, which would have ment she went into the med and out and across the pond undetected.

They should have taken a page from U-boat history...Beware the Bay of Biscay! :arrgh!:

I laugh at you all. :har: If only ANY of you knew half of what I knew. But I have to leave it at that. :salute:
Oh and the pics of the Hartford, they damn near lost the boat.

They like to work in pairs in case one of them needs spare parts :arrgh!:

From the looks of the patrol numbers, it seems most of the Russian SSN force is patrolling off the U.S. coast. The rest of the ocean must be empty!:hmmm:

There is always lack of free space.
:D

No offence but somehow I get funny feelings when reading about these two russian subs from civilian US papers. Sure, it's Pentagon's job to be worried about everything 24/7, but still: is it really so big deal if Northern Fleet sends couple of SSN's near the US coast? Yes, russian out-of-area activities decreased dramatically after collaps of Soviet Union, but who could seriously think that situation would stay forever? That people are talking about cold war -type activities is, I think, both understandable and misleading. Wasn't it Pearl Harbour which teached the US Navy that there is certain areas in the world which should be watched close all the time, no matter is it a peace time or cold or hot war time? And isn't it a very US-like act to send SSN's for operations to their possible future war time op-areas? I bet the Barents Sea area has never lacked a US submarine since 1960's. And if you place your guns to your neibourgh's garden, is'nt it just a fare game to have some of his guns to yours? It's a free world, you see. ;)

And was Polmar right in his statement that there propably has not been a first class russian sub operating close to the US in 15 years? Wasn't it just few years ago when a Oscar II-class SSGN was doing some ELINT of west coast? Or is my memory coming tricky?

Greetings,
-RC-

yes your correct 1999 the submarine in question was the K141 Kursk russian oscar II class SSGN only sighted after it had surfaced off the coast of canada, apparently it was a statement from vladimir putin to the west that the russian navy can still operate close to american shores.

There must be some stuff you can tell.

I know of someone in the RN who did track the Kursk in the med, but I'm not saying when and what boat he was on....

I can tell you about the time I saw a whale. :D But seriously, being a radioman I knew a lot of things before the captain even knew. But also having been a radioman the name Walker was driven into my skull. So the most I might tell is a good sea story or two.

This is nothing new, the bomber flights began months ago so it was only a matter of time before Ivan started shore patrols again.
I doubt we stopped sniffing around Murmansk at any point since the 1950s :03:

After 38 years of being out of the Navy i have forgotten the techinal stuff, but I sure remember all of my sea stories.

There was the time we three in Sonar reported the sun going down and the OOD wanted to know how we could tell.

So we all got on the microphone and made hissing sounds for him.

or the one where we got a sexy german lady from a rock and roll band in Rota, Spain to talk on a portable cassete tape recorder right before we went on patrol.

"This is the captain speaking"

"We have just recieved a message from the president of the United States to launch missiles?

"Now man battle stations missile"

Those were the days ... :yeah:

I don't want technical, I'm not that dumb, but sea stories would be great.

Even some funny stuff that happened when you encountered another sub. No need for details like sub, area, date etc...

Okay just one more won't hurt ...

There we were on a dark and cloudy night on a diesel submarine running on batteries ten miles off the coast of Russian back in 63 with spooks (CT's) onboard to moniter any signals a Russian test fire launch could send back when out of no where a large contact is acquired.

I was just training to be a sonarman and couldn't tell what anything was yet all I could do is tell you where it was.

So I asked the man training me what it was, because it sounded big.

Petersen was his name and a damn good first class he was too.

So he takes the phones and listens and says, "That sounds like an aircraft carrier"

This contact is getting closer and closer till conn wants to know what it is.

Sonar/Conn what is that thing?

Conn/Sonar sounds like an aircraft carrier sir ...

Captain to the control room down below the conn says, Bring her up to periscope depth.

A few minutes go by and the captain requests for Petersen to come to the conn. So I am left all alone for the first time in the black hole of calcutta (sonar was called that in the old boats).

When Petersen gets to the conn ... the captain says, "Here take a look at your aircraft carrier"

It was a big ass cruise ship all lit up cruising down the coast of Russia.

He just kept trying to explain that four screws is four screws to him, but of course they didn't
have any aircraft carriers yet and our fleet didn't steam 10 miles off the coast of our neighbor in those days. :O: