The Hunt for Med October: US Navy searching for Russian ‘carrier killer’ submarines feared to have been sent after NATO warships in the Mediterranean
- NATO planes and ships are said to be on the look out for Russian submarines
- One or two subs are believed to be operating near a French aircraft carrier
- Incident has echoes of the Cold War book and film The Hunt For Red October
NATO forces in the eastern Mediterranean are reportedly hunting for Russian submarines which are capable of sinking aircraft carriers.
US Navy P-8 Poseidon jets, operating from a base at Sigonella, Sicily, are said to be looking for one or two Russian Navy submarines operating underneath a NATO flotilla not far from the coast of Syria.
The Aviationist said the Russian submarines were believed to be Oscar II class vessels, which are known as ‘carrier killers’.
The Oscar II class submarine (pictured) is the largest attack subs ever built and was designed to target aircraft carriers STOCK PHOTO
The Oscar II class, which weigh 18,000 tonnes and have a crew of around 100, are the largest submarines ever built.
The Kursk, which sank in the Arctic Circle in 2000 with the loss of 118 lives, was an Oscar II class sub.
The Russians subs are thought to be in the vicinity of France’s flagship aircraft carrier, the Charles De Gaulle. –
A US Navy Poseidon P-8 jet (pictured) is searching for the subs in eastern Mediterranean now
The USS Eisenhower is also said to be in the region.
Today’s incident comes amid increasing tension between Russia and NATO, as an increasingly belligerent President Putin seeks to throw his weight around in Europe and the Middle East.
He is thought to be taking advantage of the United States having a ‘lame duck’ president.
The President-elect, Donald Trump, was complimentary towards Putin during the election campaign and is expected to seek to improve relations after his inauguration next month.
Trump is expected to make major shifts in State Department policy over Syria and also possibly regarding Ukraine, Crimea and Eastern Europe.
The Oscar II class subs were designed in 1975 and built up until 1996. Four years later one of them, the Kursk, sank in the Arctic Circle STOCK PHOTO
The Russian submarines are reported to be prowling around close to the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (pictured), which is now in the eastern Mediterranean
Last month the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov arrived in the eastern Mediterranean as part of a flotilla designed to support the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his efforts to defeat rebel groups in Aleppo.
Today’s cat-and-mouse chase involving American and Russian ships and submarines has echoes of The Hunt for Red October, the Tom Clancy book which was later turned into a film starring Sean Connery as renegade Soviet submarine commander Marko Ramius.
The Oscar II class submarines, which were built between 1975 and 1996, were originally designed for the Soviet Navy and were supposed to take out US and other NATO aircraft carriers in the event that the Cold War became a hot war.
Oscar II submarines are equipped with SS-N-19 ‘Shipwreck’ missiles which are capable of taking out a ship the size of a carrier.
Earlier this year Russia started the process of replacing the Shipwreck missiles with SS-N-26 ‘Strobile’ or SS-N-27 ‘Sizzler’ missiles.
An American P-8 jet has been flying over the eastern Mediterranean today trying to locate the subs, which are in the area of a NATO battlegroup
Although carriers like the Charles de Gaulle have plenty of planes to defend them, they remain vulnerable to submarine attack.
The commander of the Russian sub or subs in the Mediterranean will be using today as an exercise to test out his crew and how well they can avoid detection from the ‘enemy’.
Although Russia and NATO are not at war, the sub’s commander will consider it a success if he is able to slip away undetected.
The NATO battlegroup commander will want to be able to give the sub the impression that he has been detected and, in the event of a war situation, would have been destroyed.
The Oscar II class are inferior to the Akula II class, which are said to be virtually undetectable.
In the film The Hunt For Red October, Sean Connery (pictured) played a Soviet submarine commander playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the US Navy during the Cold War
Earlier this week a Syrian Twitter user and Assad supporter, living in the port of Tartus, took this photograph of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov less than a mile off the coast. He tweeted: ‘I can see the full flotilla best day in my life’