Sunday, March 6, 2016

U.S. Submarine Espionage

Escorted out to sea by the Alpha Marine Services built C-Tractor 3 tug, the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), departs Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay for a one-night underway that included an embark by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn. 11 Aug. 2005. Wikipedia

Joseph Trevithick, War Is Boring: This secretive U.S. Navy submarine went on a dangerous mission

On Jan. 20, 2013, the Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter left her home port in Bangor, Washington. Less than two months later, the submarine appeared at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii for repairs.

It was all quite mysterious. During her time at sea, we don't know where Jimmy Carter was or what her crew of nearly 150 were precisely doing. The Seawolf class is one of the most secretive weapons in America's arsenal, and information about the Navy's "Silent Service" is difficult to discover … by design.

We know Jimmy Carter was on some kind of mission, which the ship's official annual history vaguely referred to as Mission 7. "Performed under a wide range of adverse and extremely stressful conditions without external support, this deployment continued USS Jimmy Carter‘s tradition of excellence in pursuit of vital national security goals," the history stated.

In this vessel's official chronology, the mission warrants as much mention as a picnic in July and the crew's Halloween party three months later. But Mission 7 was enough to earn the sailors a Presidential Unit Citation, which rewards "extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy," according to an official Navy description.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: More news on what this sub does is here .... The Navy’s underwater eavesdropper (David Axe, Reuters).

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