A port bow view of the British nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine HMS Vanguard (SSBN-50) approaching the harbor entrance. The vessel is accompanied by two civilian tug boats. Port Canaveral , Florida, USA The Nuclear ballistic missile submarines Triomphant , from France, and HMS Vanguard , of the British Royal Navy , collided deep under the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the night between February 3 and 4, despite both vessels being equipped with sonar . The collision caused damage to both vessels but it did not release any radioactive material, a Ministry of Defence (MOD) official confirmed Monday. A French navy spokesman said that "the collision did not result in injuries among the crew and did not jeopardise nuclear security at any moment." Lack of communication between France and other members of NATO over the location of their SLBM deterrents is believed to be another reason for the crash. According to Daily Mail , the vessels collided 1,000ft underwater in the Bay of Biscay (Golfe de Gascogne ; Golfo de Vizcaya and Mar Cantábrico), a gulf of the North Atlantic Ocean . It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Punta de Estaca de Bares , and is named for the Spanish province of Biscay , with average depth of 5,723 feet (1,744 m) and maximum depth is 9,151 feet (2,789 m). Each submarine is laden with missiles powerful enough for 1,248 Hiroshima bombings, The Independent said. It is unlikely either vessel was operating its active sonar at the time of the collision, because the submarines are designed to "hide" while on patrol and the use of active sonar would immediately reveal the boat's location. Both submarines' hulls are covered with anechoic tile to reduce detection by sonar, so the boats' navigational passive sonar would not have detected the presence of the other. Lee Willett of London's Royal United Services Institute said "the NATO allies would be very reluctant to share information on nuclear submarines. These are the strategic crown jewels of the nation. The whole purpose of a sea-based nuclear deterrent is to hide somewhere far out of sight. They are the ultimate tools of national survival in the event of war. Therefore, it's the very last thing you would share with anybody." First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band GCB, ADC of the United Kingdom, the most senior serving officer in the Royal Navy, said that "...the submarines came into contact at very low speed. Both submarines remained safe. No injuries occurred. We can confirm the capability remains unaffected and there was no compromise to nuclear safety." "Both navies want quiet areas, deep areas, roughly the same distance from their home ports. So you find these station grounds have got quite a few submarines, not only French and Royal Navy but also from Russia and the United States. Navies often used the same nesting grounds," said John H. Large , an independent nuclear engineer and analyst primarily known for his work in assessing and reporting upon nuclear safety and nuclear related accidents and incidents . Map of the Côte d'Argent, Aquitaine ,  France (French for the Silver Coast , a touristic name given to a section of the French Atlantic coast). The development of stealth technology , making the submarines less visible to other vessels has properly explained that a submarine does not seem to have been able to pick out another submarine nearly the length of two football pitches and the height of a three-story building. "The modus operandi of most submarines, particularly ballistic-missile submarines, is to operate stealthily and to proceed undetected. This means operating passively, by not transmitting on sonar, and making as little noise as possible. A great deal of technical effort has gone into making submarines quiet by reduction of machinery noise. And much effort has gone into improving the capability of sonars to detect other submarines; detection was clearly made too late or not at all in this case," explained Stephen Saunders, the editor of Jane's Fighting Ships , an annual reference book (also published online, on CD and microfiche) of information on all the world's warships arranged by nation, including information on ship's names, dimensions, armaments, silhouettes and photographs, etc. According to Bob Ayres, a former CIA and US army officer, and former associate fellow at Chatham House , the Royal Institute of International Affairs, however, the submarines were not undetectable, despite their "stealth" technology. "When such submarines came across similar vessels from other navies, they sought to get as close as possible without being detected, as part of routine training. They were playing games with each other – stalking each other under the sea. They were practising being able to kill the other guy's submarine before he could launch a missile.Because of the sound of their nuclear reactors' water pumps, they were still noisier than old diesel-electric craft, which ran on batteries while submerged. The greatest danger in a collision was the hull being punctured and the vessel sinking, rather than a nuclear explosion," Ayres explained. Submarine collisions are uncommon, but not unheard of: in 1992, the USS Baton Rouge , a submarine belonging to the United States, under command of Gordon Kremer, collided with the Russian Sierra-class attack submarine K-276 that was surfacing in the Barents Sea . In 2001, the US submarine USS Greeneville surfaced and collided with Japanese fishing training ship Ehime Maru (えひめ丸) , off the coast of Hawaii. The Navy determined the commanding officer of Greeneville to be in "dereliction of duty." The tenth HMS Vanguard (S28) of the British Royal Navy is the lead boat of her class of Trident ballistic missile-capable submarines and is based at HMNB Clyde, Faslane . The 150m long, V-class submarine under the Trident programme , has a crew of 135, weighs nearly 16,000 tonnes and is armed with 16 Trident 2 D5 ballistic missiles carrying three warheads each. It is now believed to have been towed Monday to its naval base Faslane in the Firth of Clyde , with dents and scrapes to its hull. Faslane lies on the eastern shore of Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland ,  to the north of the Firth of Clyde and 25 miles west of the city of Glasgow . Vanguard is one of the deadliest vessels on the planet. It was built at Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (now BAE Systems Submarine Solutions ), was launched on 4 March, 1992, and commissioned on 14 August, 1993. The submarine's first captain was Captain David Russell . In February 2002, Vanguard began a two-year refit at w:HMNB Devonport . The refit was completed in June 2004 and in October 2005 Vanguard completed her return to service trials (Demonstration and Shakedown Operations) with the firing of an unarmed Trident missile. "The Vanguard has two periscopes , a CK51 search model and a CH91 attack model, both of which have a TV camera and thermal imager as well as conventional optics," said John E. Pike , director and a national security analyst for URL an easily accessible pundit , and active in opposing the SDI, and ITAR , and  consulting on NEO's . Scale model of the Triomphant (S 616) , on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris "But the periscopes are useless at that depth. It's pitch black after a couple of hundred feet. In the movies like ' Hunt for Red October ,' you can see the subs in the water, but in reality it's blindman's bluff down there. The crash could have been a coincidence — some people win the lottery — but it's much more possible that one vessel was chasing the other, trying to figure out what it was," Pike explained. The Triomphant is a strategic nuclear submarine , lead ship of her class (SNLE-NG). It was laid down on June 9, 1989, launched on March 26, 1994 and commissioned on March 21, 1997 with homeport at Île Longue . Equipped with 16 M45 ballistic missiles with six warheads each, it has 130 crew on board. It was completing a 70-day tour of duty at the time of the underwater crash. Its fibreglass sonar dome was damaged requiring three or four months in Drydock repair. "It has returned to its base on L'Ile Longue in Brittany on Saturday under its own power, escorted as usual by a frigate," the ministry said. A Ballistic missile submarine is a submarine equipped to launch ballistic missiles (SLBMs ). Ballistic missile submarines are larger than any other type of submarine, in order to accommodate SLBMs such as the Russian R-29 or the American Trident . The Triomphant class of strategic missile submarines of the French Navy are currently being introduced into service to provide the sea based component (the Force Océanique Stratégique ) of the French nuclear deterrent or Force de frappe , with the M45 SLBM . They are replacing the Redoutable-class boats. In French, they are called Sous-Marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins de Nouvelle Génération ("SNLE-NG, literally "Device-launching nuclear submarine of the new generation"). They are roughly one thousand times quieter than the Redoutable-class vessels, and ten times more sensitive in detecting other submarines . They are designed to carry the M51 nuclear missile, which should enter active service around 2010. Repairs for both heavily scraped and dented, missile-laden vessels were "conservatively" estimated to cost as much as € 55m, with intricate missile guidance systems and navigation controls having to be replaced, and would be met by the French and British taxpayer, the Irish Independent reported. Many observers are shocked by the deep sea disaster , as well as the amount of time it took for the news to reach the public. ”Two US and five Soviet submarine accidents in the past prove that the reactor protection system makes an explosion avoidable. But if the collision had been more powerful the submarines could have sunk very quickly and the fate of the 250 crew members would have been very serious indeed,” said Andrey Frolov, from Moscow's Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies . “I think this accident will force countries that possess nuclear submarines to sit down at the negotiating table and devise safety precautions that might avert such accidents in the future… But because submarines must be concealed and invisible, safety and navigation laws are hard to define,” Frolov said, noting further that there are no safety standards for submarines. Map showing the location of the Bay of Biscay in the North Atlantic Ocean bordered on France and Spain. The unthinkable disaster – in the Atlantic's 41 million square miles – has raised concern among nuclear activists . "This is a nuclear nightmare of the highest order. The collision of two submarines, both with nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons onboard, could have released vast amounts of radiation and scattered scores of nuclear warheads across the seabed," said Kate Hudson , chair of Britain's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament . "This is the most severe incident involving a nuclear submarine since the Russian submarine RFS Kursk K-141 explosion and sinking in 2000 and the first time since the Cold War that two nuclear-armed subs are known to have collided. Gordon Brown should seize this opportunity to end continuous patrols," Hudson added. Despite a rescue attempt by British and Norwegian teams, all 118 sailors and officers aboard Kursk died. "This reminds us that we could have a new catastrophe with a nuclear submarine at any moment. It is a risk that exists during missions but also in port. These are mobile nuclear reactors," said Stephane Lhomme , a spokesman for the French anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire . Nicholas Barton "Nick" Harvey, British Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for North Devon has called for an immediate internal probe. "While the British nuclear fleet has a good safety record, if there were ever to be a bang it would be a mighty big one. Now that this incident is public knowledge, the people of Britain, France and the rest of the world need to be reassured this can never happen again and that lessons are being learned," he said. SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson MP for Moray has demanded for a government statement. "The Ministry of Defence needs to explain how it is possible for a submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction to collide with another submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction in the middle of the world's second-largest ocean," he said. Michael Thomas Hancock, CBE, a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South and a City councillor for Fratton ward, and who sits on the Commons defence committee , has called on the Ministry of Defence Secretary of State John Hutton to make a statement when parliament sits next week. Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox , a British Conservative politician, currently Shadow Defence Secretary and Member of Parliament for Woodspring , said: “For two submarines to collide while apparently unaware of each other’s presence is extremely worrying.” Meanwhile, Hervé Morin , the French Minister of Defence , has denied allegations the nuclear submarines, which are hard to detect, had been shadowing each other deliberately when they collided, saying their mission was to sit at the bottom of the sea and act as a nuclear deterrent. France's Atlantic coast is known as a submarine graveyard because of the number of German U-boats and underwater craft sunk there during the Second World War .
A port bow view of the British nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN-50) approaching the harbor entrance. The vessel is accompanied by two civilian tug boats. , Florida, USA The , from France, and , of the British , collided deep under the middle of the in the middle of the night between February 3 and 4, despite both vessels being equipped with . The collision caused damage to both vessels but it did not release any , a (MOD) official confirmed Monday. A French navy spokesman said that "the collision did not result in injuries among the crew and did not jeopardise nuclear security at any moment." Lack of communication between France and other members of NATO over the location of their deterrents is believed to be another reason for the crash. According to , the vessels collided 1,000ft in the (Golfe de ; Golfo de Vizcaya and Mar Cantábrico), a of the North . It lies along the western coast of France from south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to , and is named for the Spanish province of , with average depth of 5,723 feet (1,744 m) and maximum depth is 9,151 feet (2,789 m). Each submarine is laden with missiles powerful enough for 1,248 , said. It is unlikely either vessel was operating its at the time of the collision, because the submarines are designed to "hide" while on patrol and the use of active sonar would immediately reveal the boat's location. Both submarines' hulls are covered with to reduce detection by sonar, so the boats' navigational would not have detected the presence of the other. Lee Willett of said "the NATO allies would be very reluctant to share information on nuclear submarines. These are the strategic crown jewels of the nation. The whole purpose of a sea-based nuclear deterrent is to hide somewhere far out of sight. They are the ultimate tools of national survival in the event of war. Therefore, it's the very last thing you would share with anybody." , of the United Kingdom, the most senior serving officer in the Royal Navy, said that "...the submarines came into contact at very low speed. Both submarines remained safe. No injuries occurred. We can confirm the capability remains unaffected and there was no compromise to nuclear safety." "Both navies want quiet areas, deep areas, roughly the same distance from their home ports. So you find these station grounds have got quite a few submarines, not only French and Royal Navy but also from Russia and the United States. Navies often used the same nesting grounds," said , an independent and analyst primarily known for his work in assessing and reporting upon and . Map of the , , France (French for the , a touristic name given to a section of the coast). The development of , making the submarines less visible to other vessels has properly explained that a submarine does not seem to have been able to pick out another submarine nearly the length of two football pitches and the height of a three-story building. "The modus operandi of most submarines, particularly ballistic-missile submarines, is to operate stealthily and to proceed undetected. This means operating passively, by not transmitting on sonar, and making as little noise as possible. A great deal of technical effort has gone into making submarines quiet by reduction of machinery noise. And much effort has gone into improving the capability of sonars to detect other submarines; detection was clearly made too late or not at all in this case," explained Stephen Saunders, the editor of , an annual reference book (also published online, on and microfiche) of information on all the world's arranged by nation, including information on ship's names, dimensions, armaments, silhouettes and photographs, etc. According to Bob Ayres, a former CIA and US army officer, and former associate fellow at , the Royal Institute of International Affairs, however, the submarines were not undetectable, despite their "stealth" technology. "When such submarines came across similar vessels from other navies, they sought to get as close as possible without being detected, as part of routine training. They were playing games with each other – stalking each other under the sea. They were practising being able to kill the other guy's submarine before he could launch a missile.Because of the sound of their nuclear reactors' water pumps, they were still noisier than old diesel-electric craft, which ran on batteries while submerged. The greatest danger in a collision was the hull being punctured and the vessel sinking, rather than a nuclear explosion," Ayres explained. are uncommon, but not unheard of: in 1992, the , a submarine belonging to the United States, under command of Gordon Kremer, collided with the Russian attack submarine that was surfacing in the . In 2001, the , off the coast of Hawaii. The Navy determined the commanding officer of Greeneville to be in "dereliction of duty." The tenth of the British is the lead boat of of -capable submarines and is based at , . The 150m long, V-class submarine under the , has a crew of 135, weighs nearly 16,000 tonnes and is armed with 16 carrying three each. It is now believed to have been towed Monday to its naval base in the , with dents and scrapes to its hull. Faslane lies on the eastern shore of in , , to the north of the and 25 miles west of the city of . Vanguard is one of the deadliest vessels on the planet. It was built at by (now ), was on 4 March, 1992, and on 14 August, 1993. The submarine's first captain was . In February 2002, Vanguard began a two-year refit at . The refit was completed in June 2004 and in October 2005 Vanguard completed her return to service trials (Demonstration and Shakedown Operations) with the firing of an unarmed Trident missile. "The Vanguard has two , a CK51 search model and a CH91 attack model, both of which have a TV camera and thermal imager as well as conventional optics," said , director and a national security analyst for URL an easily accessible , and active in opposing the , and , and consulting on . Scale model of the , on display at the in Paris "But the periscopes are useless at that depth. It's pitch black after a couple of hundred feet. In the movies like ' ,' you can see the subs in the water, but in reality it's blindman's bluff down there. The crash could have been a coincidence — some people win the lottery — but it's much more possible that one vessel was chasing the other, trying to figure out what it was," Pike explained. The is a , lead ship of (SNLE-NG). It was laid down on June 9, 1989, launched on March 26, 1994 and commissioned on March 21, 1997 with homeport at . Equipped with 16 with six warheads each, it has 130 crew on board. It was completing a 70-day tour of duty at the time of the underwater crash. Its fibreglass sonar dome was damaged requiring three or four months in repair. "It has returned to its base on L'Ile Longue in on Saturday under its own power, escorted as usual by a frigate," the ministry said. A Ballistic missile submarine is a equipped to launch ( ). Ballistic missile submarines are larger than any other type of submarine, in order to accommodate SLBMs such as the Russian or the American . The of strategic missile submarines of the are currently being introduced into service to provide the sea based component (the ) of the French or , with the . They are replacing the boats. In French, they are called Sous-Marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins de Nouvelle Génération ("SNLE-NG, literally "Device-launching nuclear submarine of the new generation"). They are roughly one thousand times quieter than the Redoutable-class vessels, and ten times more sensitive in detecting other submarines . They are designed to carry the nuclear missile, which should enter active service around 2010. Repairs for both heavily scraped and dented, missile-laden vessels were "conservatively" estimated to cost as much as 55m, with intricate systems and having to be replaced, and would be met by the French and British taxpayer, the reported. Many observers are shocked by the , as well as the amount of time it took for the news to reach the public. ”Two US and five Soviet submarine accidents in the past prove that the reactor protection system makes an explosion avoidable. But if the collision had been more powerful the submarines could have sunk very quickly and the fate of the 250 crew members would have been very serious indeed,” said Andrey Frolov, from . “I think this accident will force countries that possess nuclear submarines to sit down at the negotiating table and devise safety precautions that might avert such accidents in the future… But because submarines must be concealed and invisible, safety and navigation laws are hard to define,” Frolov said, noting further that there are no safety standards for submarines. Map showing the location of the in the bordered on France and Spain. The unthinkable disaster – in the Atlantic's 41 million square miles – has raised concern among . "This is a nuclear nightmare of the highest order. The collision of two submarines, both with nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons onboard, could have released vast amounts of radiation and scattered scores of nuclear warheads across the seabed," said , chair of Britain's . "This is the most severe incident involving a nuclear submarine since the in 2000 and the first time since the Cold War that two nuclear-armed subs are known to have collided. should seize this opportunity to end continuous patrols," Hudson added. Despite a rescue attempt by British and Norwegian teams, all 118 sailors and officers aboard Kursk died. "This reminds us that we could have a new catastrophe with a nuclear submarine at any moment. It is a risk that exists during missions but also in port. These are mobile nuclear reactors," said , a spokesman for the French anti-nuclear group . , British Member of Parliament for has called for an immediate internal probe. "While the British nuclear fleet has a good safety record, if there were ever to be a bang it would be a mighty big one. Now that this incident is public knowledge, the people of Britain, France and the rest of the world need to be reassured this can never happen again and that lessons are being learned," he said. Westminster leader MP for has demanded for a government statement. "The Ministry of Defence needs to explain how it is possible for a submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction to collide with another submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction in the middle of the world's second-largest ocean," he said. , , a Member of Parliament for and a City councillor for Fratton ward, and who sits on the , has called on the to make a statement when parliament sits next week. defence spokesman , a British politician, currently and Member of Parliament for , said: “For two submarines to collide while apparently unaware of each other’s presence is extremely worrying.” Meanwhile, , the French , has denied allegations the nuclear submarines, which are hard to detect, had been shadowing each other deliberately when they collided, saying their mission was to sit at the bottom of the sea and act as a nuclear deterrent. is known as a submarine graveyard because of the number of German and underwater craft sunk there during the .
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HMS Vanguard
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Port Canaveral
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Nuclear ballistic missile submarines Triomphant
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HMS Vanguard
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Royal Navy
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Atlantic Ocean
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sonar
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radioactive material, a Ministry of Defence
, a
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SLBM
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Daily Mail
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underwater in the Bay of Biscay
in the
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Gascogne
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gulf
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Atlantic Ocean
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Brest
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Punta de Estaca de Bares
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Biscay
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Hiroshima bombings, The Independent
,
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active sonar
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anechoic tile
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passive sonar
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London's Royal United Services Institute
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First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band GCB, ADC
,
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John H. Large
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nuclear engineer
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nuclear safety and nuclear related accidents and incidents
and
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Côte d'Argent, Aquitaine
A
,
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Silver Coast
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French Atlantic
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stealth technology
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Jane's Fighting Ships
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CD
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warships
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Chatham House
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Submarine collisions
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USS Baton Rouge
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Sierra-class attack submarine K-276
attack submarine
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Barents Sea
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US submarine USS Greeneville surfaced and collided with Japanese fishing training ship Ehime Maru (えひめ丸)
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HMS Vanguard (S28)
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Royal Navy
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her class of Trident ballistic missile-capable
of -capable
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HMNB Clyde, Faslane
,
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Trident programme
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Trident 2 D5 ballistic missiles carrying three warheads
carrying three
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Faslane in the Firth of Clyde
in the
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Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland
in
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,
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Firth of Clyde
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Glasgow
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Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (now BAE Systems Submarine Solutions
by (now
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launched
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commissioned
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Captain David Russell
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w:HMNB Devonport
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periscopes
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John E. Pike
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pundit
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SDI, and ITAR
A
, and
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NEO's
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Triomphant (S 616)
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Musée de la Marine
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Hunt for Red October
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Triomphant is a strategic nuclear submarine
is a
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her class
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Île Longue
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M45 ballistic missiles
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Drydock
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Brittany
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submarine
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ballistic missiles (SLBMs
(
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R-29
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Trident
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Triomphant class
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French Navy
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Force Océanique Stratégique
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nuclear deterrent or Force de frappe
or
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M45 SLBM
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Redoutable-class
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M51
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€
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missile guidance systems and navigation controls
systems and
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Irish Independent
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deep sea disaster
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Moscow's Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies
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Bay of Biscay in the North Atlantic Ocean
in the
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nuclear activists
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Kate Hudson
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Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
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Russian submarine RFS Kursk K-141 explosion and sinking
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Gordon Brown
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Stephane Lhomme
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Sortir du Nucleaire
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Nicholas Barton "Nick" Harvey, British Liberal Democrat
, British
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North Devon
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SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson MP for Moray
Westminster leader MP for
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Michael Thomas Hancock, CBE, a Liberal Democrat
, , a
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Portsmouth South
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Commons defence committee
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Ministry of Defence Secretary of State John Hutton
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Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox
defence spokesman
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Conservative
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Shadow Defence Secretary
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Woodspring
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Hervé Morin
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Minister of Defence
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France's Atlantic coast
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U-boats
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Second World War