Something Nasty In The Water!

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Why was there a gap of several months the collision between a Royal Navy submarine and the MFV Karen and the MOD owning up?

Well the most likely explanation was that the submarine was a ballistic missile of Trident Sub (SSBN) departing on patrol or one of the hunter-killer types that sometimes shadow them. Such patrols last between three and four months and during that time unless there is a dire emergency no communication with base is undertaken by either submarine under any circumstances.

The time frame would seem to fit perfectly however if this is the case it raises two interesting scenarios.

1) With a limited deterrent fleet of four submarines one always undergoing maintenance the SSBN will never be in a position to act in a humanitarian manner when an incident occurs during its mission.
2) If an SSBN carrying not just nuclear reactors but also 40 thermonuclear warheads can career into the nets of a small N Irish fishing boat what happens if is hits something more substantial in the relatively confined waters of the Irish Sea?

We do unfortunately have precedence for this the USS Nathaniel Greene was so badly disabled and damaged in the South Central Irish Sea thirty years ago that it was towed back to the US and decommissioned (the admission was only made years after the event) and no one knows the extent (if any) of any pollution. In fact you could say the Nathaniel Greene was unlucky because it had Irish Sea mishaps in both 1984 and 1985.

Sinn Fein Assembly Minister, Michelle O’Neill, has rightly voiced her anger over the MFV Karen affair. However she and other colleague politicians in Ireland, Scotland, Mann, Wales and England should not lose sight of the bigger picture!

BERNARD MOFFATT

Issued by: The Celtic News

08/09/15

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