Even the Sock Puppets have Sock Puppets

It's just some are better puppeteers than others.

But first, a diversion into the latest in puppet technology, but you have to be very smart to use it correctly.

The United States Navy has 51 nuclear powered Los Angeles Class submarines, 16 in the Pacific Fleet and 32 in the Atlantic Fleet. The first was commissioned in 1976 and the latest of the class, the USS Cheyenne, was commissioned in 1996. The ships have been built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (formerly Newport News Shipbuilding) and General Dynamics Electric Boat Division.

Nine of the Los Angeles class submarines were deployed in the Gulf War in 1991, during which Tomahawk missiles were launched from two of the submarines. 12 Los Angeles submarines were deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March/April 2003. All 12 launched Tomahawk TLAM missiles.

The Los Angeles class submarine is an attack submarine equipped for anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, show-of-force missions, insertion of special forces, strike missions, mining and search and rescue.

Los Angeles Class submarines built since 1982 are equipped with a vertical launch missile system with twelve launch tubes. The submarine is fitted with a Raytheon CCS Mark 2 combat data system. This is to be replaced with a further development, the Raytheon AN/BYG-1 Combat Control System, also to be fitted on USN Virginia and Seawolf classes and Australian Collins Class submarines. The first system will be fitted on SSN68 Los Angeles in late 2005.

The submarine is armed with both the land-attack and anti-ship version of the Tomahawk missile from Raytheon. The land-attack Tomahawk has a range of 2,500km. A TAINS (Tercom Aided Inertial Navigation System) guides the missile towards the target flying at subsonic speed at an altitude of 20m to 100m. Block III improvements include an improved propulsion system and Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) guidance capability. Tomahawk can be fitted with a nuclear warhead which is not normally carried on the Los Angeles class. The anti-ship Tomahawk missile is equipped with an inertial guidance and an active radar and anti-radiation homing head. The range is up to 450km.

First underwater launch of the new Raytheon Tactical Tomahawk Block IV missile with a live warhead took place from USS Tucson (SSN 770) in July 2003. Block IV includes a two-way satellite link that allows reprogramming of the missile in flight and transmission of Battle Damage Indication (BDI) imagery. The missile entered service with USN surface ships in September 2004.

The Los Angeles class also carry the Harpoon anti-ship missile from Boeing. Sub-Harpoon uses active radar homing to deliver a 225kg warhead. The range is 130km and the speed is high subsonic...

Last week one of Olmert's pet NeoCons leaked that Israel had plans to nuke Iran. It doesn't matter that most of the brass of the Israeli military think it's a really bad idea. It doesn't matter that most of the Israeli people think tossing nukes at Iran is a really bad idea. Nor does it matter that Israel does its best to convince the world it doesn't have nukes, much less that the nuke threatened was an experimental low yield bunker buster form that breaks all the nuclear ban treaties. And of course, it certainly doesn't matter that the existance of such a weapon is totally hypothetical, its existence only speculated by Donald Rumsfeld a few years ago.

As a matter of fact, the only concrete thing in this post is the Los Angeles class of nuclear submarine, a fast attack sub, that is perfectly capable of firing nuclear missiles. Among other things.

You see, one of these craft, offically operating off the African coast aiding in the Somalian action, hit a Japanese oil tanker off the coast of Iran on Monday night.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 — An American nuclear-powered attack submarine has collided with a Japanese commercial vessel in the Arabian Sea. Initial reports from the area said there were no injuries and only slight damage, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday night.

The collision, south of the Strait of Hormuz, was first reported by the Kyodo news agency in Japan, which said the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo had been officially notified of the accident by American officials.

A Pentagon spokesman identified the submarine as the U.S.S. Newport News. The Japanese vessel was thought to be a tanker. American military officials in Washington were seeking a fuller accounting.

The U.S.S. Newport News is a nuclear-powered, fast-attack submarine in the Los Angeles class of vessels, and was commissioned in 1989, according to Pentagon records.

The Japanese oil company Showa Shell Sekiyu K. K. said the ship involved is the tanker Mogamigawa, operated by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., The Associated Press reported, citing a report from the Kyodo news agency. It was traveling from the Persian Gulf to Singapore and was carrying a crew of eight Japanese and 16 Filipinos.

It seems the sub was not in Omani waters at the time- meaning it was in Iranian waters {nice catch xan].

One wonders if this sub had the "Israeli" missiles intended to do the dirty work on Iran.

You have to be smart to use an attack sub as a sock puppet. Unless, of course, you install windows in the bow.


[Thanks to Lambert for reminding me also the diameter of the sub is 10 meters, but the Straits are 40 meters max. Talk about trying to march a camel through the eye of a needle...]