International Argentine submarine missing with 44 aboard: ARA San Juan's imploded wreckage has been found.

Not to run constantly but as a backup safety system it seems reasonable.

I think they still use chlorate candles as an emergency measure.
 
I think they still use chlorate candles as an emergency measure.

No idea what they. Show i saw said they use CO2 scrubbers but nothing that makes oxygen. Well nothing they mentioned.
 
I think oxygen generators (using seawater) are uncommon on diesel/electric subs, because electrolysis is massively inefficient.

Is that a physically big tech or just energy intensive?
 
That's sad. RIP. I'm surprised that submarines being naval vessels can shut down like this. This isn't an airplane ffs.
 
That's sad. RIP. I'm surprised that submarines being naval vessels can shut down like this. This isn't an airplane ffs.

If you lose power generation, you sink. If you lose the backup.... You stay sunk
 
No idea what they. Show i saw said they use CO2 scrubbers but nothing that makes oxygen. Well nothing they mentioned.

Yeah, I'm not sure whether "running out of air" actually means a lack of oxygen or too much CO2. Chemical oxygen generators like chlorate candles are what's used in space and for those emergency drop down oxygen masks in planes.

Is that a physically big tech or just energy intensive?

Not sure on the weight and dimensions, but distilling the seawater and converting it to oxygen and hydrogen through electrolysis is hugely inefficient (not so much a problem for the nuclear submarines obviously).
They don't look that big (not including the destiller, which is needed anyway).

img-automated-electrolytic-oxygen-generator-lg.jpg
 
That's a tragic way to go.

Rest in peace brave stewards of the south Pacific.
 
Argentina is in the Atlantic.

You're right.

I was thinking of Chile and Ecuador and Columbia and then jumped over the coast to the Pacific rim.

That's what happens when you hang around Hong Kong too long!
 
You're right.

I was thinking of Chile and Ecuador and Columbia and then jumped over the coast to the Pacific rim.

That's what happens when you hang around Hong Kong too long!

Chile also has subs, but Chile aint broke, so i believe they will be well maintained.
 
Yeah that's sad. Feel bad for those guys.
I can't help but feel that this brings out the stupidity of Warfare.
Sending 40 guys I assume 30 of those were between 18-25 in a metal container full of explosives several 100 meters in the ocean for what?
I mean I understand the need for a defense force but its just so pointless all things considered.
 
Last edited:
Chile also has subs, but Chile aint broke, so i believe they will be well maintained.

yup chile is putting money into their navy, major mid-life upgrades are in store for the cream of their surface fleet
 
I thought there would be some kind of independent system for distress calls.

You would think that they would have some type of distress beacon they could deploy while submerged. The ocean is very deep in that area. Reports are that they were having electrical problems while in the Southern area so they were told to return to a base at the Northern end of Argentina. Loss of electrical power or an electrical could certainly be fatal. I would have thought that they would remain on the surface if they were having problems.

The sound that they believe was in that area was picked up by a global underwater listening system designed to detect nuclear tests. I don't know how long it takes to figure out the location of sounds.
 
You would think that they would have some type of distress beacon they could deploy while submerged.

The sub does have emergency beacons, which haven't been activated , which means their systems probably went FUBAR right after they went under knowingly with short-circuiting batteries.

Honestly, if I'm the captain of an Argentine diesel-electric sub with confirmed fucked-up batteries in home waters, I would just stay on the surface and sail all the way back to port on the fully-functional diesel engines, rather than submerge and play Russian roulette like the Argentine Navy guidelines instructs me to.
 
Last edited:
Argentina missing submarine: President pledges inquiry to 'know the truth'

_98900362_043194409.jpg

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has promised that an inquiry into the disappearance of a navy submarine will "know the truth" of what happened.

Mr Macri urged Argentines not to look for people to blame until all the facts were known.

He said the search for the ARA San Juan and its 44 crew would continue.

Hopes have faded since the navy said an event "consistent with an explosion" was detected near the sub's last-known location.

Announcing the official inquiry at navy headquarters in Buenos Aires, Mr Macri said the 34-year-old submarine had recently undergone a refit and was "in perfect condition".

"We should not venture into looking for people to blame," he told a news conference.

"This will require a serious, deep investigation that reveals certainties about why we are witnessing what happened. My commitment is with the truth."

Earlier, navy spokesman Capt Enrique Baldi said there was still no trace of the submarine, which vanished nine days ago.

More than 12 countries are involved in the search.

Mr Baldi said search teams had access to "the best technology available" via the US navy.

He added: "We have the best naval, air and sensor resources available in the area, all focused on searching for the submarine. We are still looking and no country is saying at the moment when they will stop. Logically it's time-limited but no-one is speaking about that at the moment."

_98885774_aubmrine_inf640-nc.png

Some of the crew's relatives reacted with anger to the news on Thursday that an explosion had been detected.

"They manipulated us! They lied to us!" said Itatí Leguizamón, whose husband was on board.

She and others have raised questions about the state of repair the submarine was in. Some said lack of investment and corruption in the armed forces had made the submarine unsafe.

Argentine newspaper La Nación reports that there is speculation that navy chief Marcelo Eduardo Hipólito Srur may resign, but officials have said this is not imminent.

On Wednesday the navy received a US report of a loud noise - called a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" - detected hours after the submarine went missing.

The navy knew only the location of the suspected explosion, not its cause, Captain Baldi said, and search efforts would be concentrated in the area.

What was the sub's last known location?

_98880275_missing_argenitine_submarine_640_v3-nc.png

The ARA San Juan was returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia, near the southernmost tip of South America, when it reported an "electrical breakdown".

According to naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi, the submarine surfaced and reported the breakdown, which was described as a "short circuit" in the sub's batteries.

The sub was ordered to cut its mission short and return to the naval base in Mar del Plata immediately.

According to Capt Baldi, the captain of the ARA San Juan contacted the naval base once more after reporting the problem.

In the message, he reportedly said that the problem had been adequately fixed and that the sub would submerge and proceed towards Mar del Plata.

The last contact was made at 07:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on Wednesday 15 November. It is not known what happened to the sub after that contact.

Argentine navy protocol stipulates that in peace time, submarines make contact with the base twice a day.

When the submarine failed to call in, the Argentine navy began its search.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42115406
 
Argentine Navy spokeman:
"Water entered missing Argentine sub's snorkel, causing short circuit"
Hugh Bronstein | November 27, 2017
arasanjuan2.jpg

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Water entered the snorkel of the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, causing its battery to short-circuit before it went missing on Nov. 15, a navy spokesman said on Monday as hope dwindled among some families of the 44-member crew.

The San Juan had only a seven-day oxygen supply when it lost contact, and a sudden noise was detected that the navy says could have been the implosion of the vessel. Ships with rescue equipment from countries including the United States and Russia were nonetheless rushing to join the search.

Before its disappearance, the submarine had been ordered back to its Mar del Plata base after it reported water had entered the vessel through its snorkel, causing a battery short circuit, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told a news conference.

“They had to isolate the battery and continue to sail underwater toward Mar del Plata, using another battery,” Balbi said.

After contact with the San Juan was lost, the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts, detected a noise the navy said could have been the submarine’s implosion.

The search for the 65-meter (213-foot) diesel-electric submarine is concentrated in an area some 430 km (267 miles) off Argentina’s southern coast. The effort includes ships and planes manned by 4,000 personnel from 13 countries, including Brazil, Chile and Great Britain.

Among the crew’s family members, fissures started appearing on Monday between those who refuse to give up hope and those who say it is time to accept that their loved ones will not come back alive.

Some relatives have said they are focusing on the lack of physical evidence of an implosion and the possibility that the submarine might have risen close enough to the ocean surface to replenish its oxygen supply after it went missing.

But Itati Leguizamon said she believed her husband, crew member German Suarez, had died.

”There is no way they are alive,“ she told reporters, her voice shaking and eyes welling with tears. ”It is not that I want this. I love him. I adore him. He left his mother and sister behind, but there is no sense in being stubborn.

“The other families are attacking me for what I am saying,” she said, “but why have they not found it yet? Why don’t they tell us the truth?”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rkel-causing-short-circuit-idUSKBN1DR2B3?il=0
 
The sub does have emergency beacons, which haven't been activated , which means their systems probably went FUBAR right after they went under knowingly with short-circuiting batteries.

Honestly, if I'm the captain of a, Argentine diesel-electric sub with confirmed fucked-up batteries in home waters, I would just stay on the surface and sail all the way back to port on the fully-functional diesel engines, rather than submerge and play Russian roulette like the Argentine Navy guidelines instructs me to.

thats an amazingly stupid policy
 
Back
Top