The Salvage of the Russian Submarine "Kursk"

[Mr T.]

Former Brit Military Expert -
Kursk Sunk By US Torpedo
By Daniel Stacey
The Australian
22nd May 2005

LONDON - A former British military official has backed a sensational claim that the Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, was torpedoed by US forces in August 2000.

An official inquest concluded that the disaster - in which all 118 crew drowned in the Barents Sea, 135km off the Russian coast - was caused by an accidental explosion of an onboard torpedo.

But Maurice Stradling, a former torpedo engineer and a key figure in the original investigation, believes a new French documentary, The Kursk: A Submarine in Troubled Waters, should change world opinion on the sinking.

"On the balance of probabilities, the Kursk was sunk by an American MK-48 torpedo," said Mr Stradling, formerly a senior member of the British Defence Ministry.

BBC editor Nick Fraser called the claim a "pack of lies" and has refused to air the documentary, which attracted a record audience of more than 4 million when it screened on French TV.

The BBC used Mr Stradling as its main authority for a documentary it made in 2001 - What Sank the Kursk?, in which Mr Stradling theorised that the sinking was caused by the malfunctioning of an old-fashioned HTP torpedo.

Mr Stradling, who also appears in the new French documentary, said: "At the time (2001), that was a perfectly reasonable film, given the facts as we knew them then, when there seemed to be no third-party involvement,"

The new explanation for the Kursk's downing is based on film footage of a hole in the side of the vessel, and evidence placing US submarines in the area at the time it was sunk.

The French film shows stills of the Kursk raised above the water after being salvaged, with a precise circular hole in its right side. The hole clearly bends inwards, consistent with an attack from outside the submarine.

A US military source in the documentary declares the hole to be the trademark evidence of an American MK-48 torpedo, which is made to melt cleanly through steel sheet due to a mechanism at its tip that combusts copper.

The film suggests the attack happened while two US submarines, the Toledo and Memphis, were shadowing the Kursk in a routine military exercise.

The documentary says the Toledo accidentally collided with the Kursk, at which point the Russian submarine opened its torpedo tubes, leading to an attack from the Memphis, which was protecting the damaged Toledo while it retreated.

The cause of the sinking was covered up at the time in an act of diplomacy between then US presidents Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin - a deal that included the cancellation of $US10 billion ($12.5 billion) of Russian debt, the film states.

After the documentary received its only public broadcast in Britain, some claimed the Russian navy had drilled the hole and fed doctored footage to the film-makers to create a false impression.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

[Mr T.]

Russian Defense Minister
Says USS Mempis Sunk The Kursk
http://www.russiatoday.com
12-7-00


THE KURSK SUBMARINE DISASTER: ANOTHER EVIDENCE OF A COLLISION. NORWEGIANS REMOVE THE VEIL OF SECRECY AND VIRTUALLY NAME KURSK KILLER

Igor Sergeyev, Russian defence minister, confirmed today in Brussels the words said by Rear-Admiral Einar Skorgen, former commander of the Norwegian Northern Force.

According to the admiral, Russian anti-submarine aircrafts did pursue on August 17th a foreign submarine escaping from the site of the nuclear submarine Kursk's crash.

Admiral Skorgen also said that Russian North Fleet aircrafts got so absorbed in the pursuit they nearly violated the Norwegian air space, so Norwegian fighters made an alert takeoff. Happily, violation was avoided thanks to a talk between the Norwegian Air Force and the Russian North Fleet commanders.

On top of that, according to the admiral, there was something wrong with the US submarine Memphis entering the Norwegian port of Bergen. Moreover, wives of 12 Memphis sailors were then urgently flown from US to Norway, the aim of their arrival being kept secret.

[JohnK]

Interesting stuff Bren. I always had a feeling that it was not an accident - sadly we will never know but conspiracy theories are just as good !!

[Mr T.]

Russia Marks Anniversary of Sub's Sinking

By MARIA DANILOVA, Associated Press Writer

Friday, August 12, 2005


(08-12) 11:29 PDT MOSCOW, Russia (AP) --

Sailors in dress uniforms stood at attention on a ship's deck Friday as wreaths were tossed into the gray sea to honor 118 of their comrades who perished five years ago when the nuclear submarine Kursk sank.

Ceremonies marking the tragedy's fifth anniversary were held around Russia on Friday, which just a week ago was riveted by another submarine accident that cast the spotlight on what analysts and the Russian media said was a navy ill-equipped to deal with such rescue missions.

"Where is the underwater technology that the navy authorities solemnly promised to get into shape after the Kursk?" the official government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta asked in its Friday issue.

Flags flew at half-mast on most Russian ships as relatives of the victims and ordinary citizens flocked to memorials around the country.

Wreaths were thrown carefully into the water in Vidyayevo, the Kursk's home port. Meanwhile, in the city of Kursk, home to 16 of the submariners who perished and the vessel's namesake, a monument constructed of the submarine's scrap was unveiled and, in an elaborate church ceremony, blessed by an Orthodox priest. Dozens of people, some weeping, laid flowers before the monument.

The Kursk, one of the navy's most sophisticated vessels, was rocked by explosions and sank during naval exercises in the Barents Sea on Aug. 12, 2000 — horrifying a nation once home to one of the world's mightiest navies.

Most of the 118 Kursk crew were killed instantly by the explosions, but 23 others survived for about eight hours, according to an official probe into the disaster. Many of the relatives, however, believe some of the sailors were alive for days, continuing to send desperate messages for help.

Russia's inability to reach the stranded sailors, compounded by officials' refusal for days to accept foreign help, astounded a nation that, almost exactly five years later, would face a similar ordeal.

On Aug. 5, a mini-sub with seven men on board became trapped deep in the Pacific Ocean, off Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. Again, the Russian navy was unable to reach or rescue the crew, prompting questions about whether any lessons had been learned from the Kursk.

This time, however, Russian officials sought and accepted foreign help. Nearly three days later, with oxygen and water supplies dwindling, a British remote-controlled vehicle known as the Scorpio cut the cables blocking the mini-sub from surfacing. All those aboard were saved.

The rescued crew on Friday briefly left a military hospital where they have been recovering to attend a church service.

"We decided to visit a church to give thanks for our survival," Vyacheslav Milashevsky, the mini-sub's captain, said on NTV television.

Speaking to reporters at a Kursk memorial ceremony in Moscow, Russian navy Chief of Staff Adm. Vladimir Masorin said that while the navy had bought foreign rescue gear after the Kursk catastrophe, Russian navy personnel were not yet able to operate it, something that Masorin pledged would be addressed.

"No matter how many vehicles we have, there never will be enough if we can't use them correctly," Masorin said.

He said an underwater rescue craft similar to the Scorpio that Russia previously had bought from Britain was broken due to a human error and couldn't be used in the salvage effort.

"Our people broke it when they started to use it," Masorin said.

Another Russian underwater vehicle that could have been used in the mission would have arrived too late to be of use. Officials have pledged to buy more vehicles similar to the Scorpio.

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analyst, said that while the Kursk taught Russian officials to ask for foreign help, the "rescue service isn't working, just as it wasn't working back then."