Quietest submarine in the world

[Vikrant]

Sneaky ...

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Russia has taken another major step towards modernizing its navy.
The Russian defense company Admiralty Shipyards launched its second diesel-electric Varshavyanka-class submarine this week.

Called Krasnodar, the company claims that the vessel will be "the quietest submarine in the world," Zachary Keck reports for The National Interest.

Krasnodar is part of a plan to update Russia's submarine fleet. According to Russia Today, the submarine is the "second Varshavyanka submarine out of six planned for the Black Sea Fleet by the end of 2016."

The Varshavyanka-class is an update to Russia's current Kilo-class submarine. Although Varshavyanka-class submarines can not dive as deep or stay submerged underwater as long as nuclear submarines, they are nearly impossible to detect acoustically.

...

The Kremlin just launched what it claims is the quietest submarine in the world - Yahoo Finance

 

[mamooth]

The Kilo-class first launched in 1980. Even upgraded, it's not the "quietest in the world". It's a very capable boat for operating in Russian coastal waters. But it's still a diesel boat.

State of the art in non-nuclear subs is the German 214 class. Germany has 6, Italy 3, Israel 2. Fuel cell propulsion, which doesn't consume oxygen, so the sub can run submerged for 2 weeks.

 

[waltky]

Russia tryin' to knock us off the internet?...

Russians subs lurking around underwater internet cables
October 29, 2015 - RUSSIAN submarines have been spotted surveying vital undersea internet cables, raising fears that the freshly belligerent nation may plan to cut the data lifelines in times of conflict.

According to reports in the Huffington Post and New York Times, Russian spy ships and submarines have been displaying sudden interest in the roughly 200 heavy data cables which link the world’s continents. “The tactical reasons for doing so are plain,” former US admiral Jim Stavridis writes in The Huffington Post. “In the case of heightened tensions, access to the underwater cable system represents a rich trove of intelligence, a potential major disruption to an enemy’s economy and a symbolic chest thump for the Russian Navy.”

Ominous presence - Russian submarines have been observed lingering in the vicinity of the world’s deepwater internet cables.​

The US and other concerned nations are closely monitoring Russian movements in order to glean what their intentions are. Norway has even gone so far to ask NATO for help in keeping an eye on its world-wide-web lifelines. US Navy spokesman Commander. William Marks told the New York Times: “It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics.” If access to the internet was severely impaired or cut off, it could have a serious impact on world economies: More than $10 trillion in trade is conducted via the fibre-optic links every day.

Tensions with Russia have flared since it conducted a ‘velvet’ invasion of the Crimea Peninsula in early 2014, seizing control of the strategic peninsula and popular holiday spot from the freshly independent Ukraine. It has since been engaged in a covert war supporting pro-Moscow separatists in their campaign against the Ukrainian government. In September, Russia also deployed combat jets, tanks and troops to Syria to help prop-up the struggling regime of President Bashar al-Assad against advances by US-backed rebels and the Islamic State.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/i...-internet-cables/story-fnpjxnlk-1227586719225

 

[waltky]

Mebbe dey want to tap into U.S. internet traffic...

Why is Russia Interested in Undersea Internet Cables?
November 06, 2015: It seems like something more fitting of a Cold War-era James Bond movie script than present-day reality: unnamed Pentagon officials circulating reports that Russian naval vessels and submarines are lurking around undersea cables that link the U.S. to Europe and Asia. The unnamed officials speculate the Russians might be trying to tap those links — or even worse, completely sever them during a time of crisis.

That’s exactly what unnamed U.S. military and intelligence officials have been telling influential news outlets such as The New York Times. And they’re not alone. Last week, former NATO Supreme Commander Admiral John Stavridis (Ret.) warned that undersea fiber-optic cables handle almost all the world’s Internet communications and represent a serious security vulnerability should an adversary attack them. This week, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators requested information from the secretaries of state, defense and homeland security regarding the security of the nearly 200 fiber-optic cables that link the globe together electronically. “Due to increased Russian aggression and their presence in waters these cables rest in, we are increasingly concerned with what a targeted attack on the cables the U.S. depends on could result in,” they said in their request.

Undersea fiber-optic cables carry the bulk of intercontinental Internet traffic.​

Cables cut all the time

“Nearly all the world’s Internet traffic passes at some point through an underwater cable,” said Doug Madory, director of Internet research at the cyber-intelligence firm Dyn. “And rarely a week goes by that there isn’t a submarine cable break somewhere in the world.” According to the firm TeleGeography, there are approximately 200 active submarine cables crisscrossing the bottom of the ocean’s floors. These cables electronically link together all of the world’s continents, except Antarctica, and nearly every island with a human population. Undersea cables are generally around a mere 3 inches in diameter and composed of various layers of insulation, steel cables and water protection. Deep inside are bundles of thin optical fibers — tiny, flexible fibers marginally larger than a human hair. Each can each carry huge amounts of digital data; together they handle over 95 percent of all Internet and phone data between continents.

Some nations, such as Cuba or New Zealand, have only one main cable connecting them to the global Internet. “For countries relying on a single submarine cable, the loss of that cable could be crippling for their Internet service,” Madory told VOA. “They may be able to fall back on bulk satellite service, but satellite has much greater latency and less capacity.” The U.S., by contrast, has several dozen cables connected to its Atlantic and Pacific coast hubs. Exposed along the vast expanses of ocean seafloor, these cables face a wide range of hazards, including dragging anchors and, in some areas, sharks that inexplicably like chewing on the cables’ polyethylene sheathing. “When close to shore, these cables are encased in protective metal shielding and buried up to 3 meters deep in the seabed, but out in the deep sea they are unprotected and as thin as a garden hose,” said Madory. “If someone was able to locate these cables at sea, they could easily cut them.”

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[bodecea]

People seem to think that our ASW capabilities went away with the Soviet Union. Well, let the Russians, etc. keep thinking that.