Tag Archives: collision

Did HMS Vanguard fall foul of France’s ultra secrecy in the nuclear sub collision with Le Triomphant?

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Le TriomphantIt seems to be becoming increasingly well authenticated that a central cause of this collision is France’s non-membership of NATO’s military command structure. Nations belonging to this provide information on the movements of their submarines and are kept informed centrally of the relevant movements of the submarines of fellow member nations.

There are operating areas reserved for submarines from the UK, Norway, The Netherlands, Canada and America. If one wants to enter the other’s area of influence, they let them know and tell them what they’ll be doing there.  But nations outside the NATO command structure are obviously not privy to that information nor do they supply any information on their own movements.

France has traditionally been ultra-secretive of anything to do with its nuclear deterrent capacity, hence its choice to remain outside the NATO military command structure.

However, Britain and America too keep their information tight. They have the information on the movements of the submarines operated by fellow NATO command structure members but they do not supply information on the movements of their own.

So HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant would each have been blind-sided on the other’s movements and locations and each must have been running on invisibility capacity.

There’s an interesting article on the NATO element of the situation at Time World.

The photograph above of Brittany-based French nuclear submarine,Le Triomphant, is reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.

Argyll’s HMS Vanguard and French nuclear submarine – both heavily armed – damaged in major Atlantic collision

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HMS VanguardIt emerged a little while ago today that two heavily armed nuclear submarines had a serious collision in the Atlantic on 3rd or 4th February. Neither the British nor the French Defence Ministries will comment.

The submarines involved – the Royal Navy’s Faslane-based HHS Vanguard and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant, are both equipped with collision avoidance radar and should easily have been able to detect the other’s presence – but did not. Since both vessels also have sophisticated anti-detection gear, this was clearly the dominant factor in the equation that brought the two subs together.

While all nuclear deterrent operations depend on complete secrecy. The USA and the UK let each other know the areas where their submarines are operating. Although both France and the UK are members of NATO, neither vessel seems to have been aware of the close presence of the other submarine.

Both submarines have been described by the BBC’s Defence Correspondent as having been ‘seriously armed’ at the time of the collision. No injuries are understood to have occurred.

HMS Vanguard had to  be towed back into dock at Faslane on Saturday (14th February) with, it is said, ‘very visible dents and scrapes’.

Le TriomphantWhile both Defence Ministries insist that there was no danger of a nuclear incident this is not being accepted by experts as a credible position. A nuclear explosion was ‘unlikely’, according to a senior Royal Navy source talking to the Sun newspaper and reported by CNN but the source went on to say: ‘A radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster’.

Vanguard, launched in 1992, is one of four submarines making up the UK’s nuclear deterrent. Its weaponry includes 16 Trident II D5 missiles whihc have the capacity to deliver multiple warheads to targets up to 4,000 nautical miles away.

At 150m long,  Vanguard carries a crew of 141 and is powered by a uranium-fueled pressurized water reactor. Vanguard Class submarines routinely spend weeks at a time underwater on patrol in the North Atlantic.

Le Triomphant, launched in 1994, also 150m long and based at Ile Longue in Brittany, suffered severe damage to its sonar dome, in the collision according to the Daily Telegraph.

GlobalSecurity.org reports her as carrying a crew of 111. Her  weaponry includes 16 M45 missiles capable of launching multiple nuclear warheads.

The BBC quotes the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) as saying that this was: ‘a nuclear nightmare of the highest order”.

CND chair Kate Hudson said: “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.”

The nuclear risks in such an incident are twofold. The submarines carry nuclear warheads – which in this case were armed; and they are powered by nuclear reactors.

Both photogrpahs above – HMS Vanguard, top, (by John Bouvia) andf Le Triomphant, are reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.

Train hits van on crossing at Corpach

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Late on Friday night a train on the route from Mallaig to Crianlarich hit a van on a crossing at Corpach, north of Fort William. The can was driven by a 65 year-old local man, Peter Donald from Banavie in Fort William. Fortunately the train was travelling at around 10mph at the time. Neither Mr Donald nor anyone on the train was injured. The train was not derailed.