It is no surprise part of the tragedy reported today:
“After the [Titan submersible] was reported missing, the U.S. Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data and found an anomaly [a very loud sound] that was “consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” a senior Navy official told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.
The Navy passed on that information to the Coast Guard, which continued its search because the Navy did not consider the data to be definitive."
The “sensitive acoustic detection system” is called the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) (some details below). The many sensors of IUSS, some relatively close to the Titan implosion and many more distant in the Atlantic Ocean, would have very accurately triangulated the precise location (rather than “the general vicinity”) and time of Titan's implosion off the US/Canadian coast.
A major and understandable concern of
the IUSS organization, which is part of US Naval Intelligence, ultimately
relying on the NSA, was that the covert sources and methods to process
the large amount of Titan implosion data not become a major public issue.
The main job of acutely precise IUSS sensors in the Atlantic Ocean are to detect and track the very small sounds made by Russian nuclear submarines. Undersea implosions are relatively easily heard compared to submarine movements.
It took the availability of an overt source/sensor (a rare, very deep diving, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to find fragments of Titan on the seafloor) to make it a public fact that the fate of Titan was now known. It was also out of concern for the next of kin that they shouldn't be told out of nowhere "secret sources, that we can't talk about, indicate your loved ones are dead..."
Some Details of IUSS
On June 20, 2023 I wrote of the importance of “fixed undersea sensors” to hear sounds made by Titan. These sensors principally mean ordinarily Top Secret seafloor microphones. In reference to Titan the microphones precisely locating the implosion are strung along:
1. the Atlantic coast of the North American continent (including Canada)
2. from northern Canada, to Greenland,
to Iceland and then on to northern UK
3. other relevant microphones protect the
US nuclear submarine test ranges in the Bahamas, Caribbean Sea.
The location and large number of these microphones make triangulation of the implosion more precise.
These microphone arrays are operated by US,
Canadian and UK naval personnel as part of the worldwide Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) network.
From time to time these microphone arrays (a niche type of signals intelligence) become a semi-public issue, like now. Then the existence of IUSS quite literally submerges, being quickly forgotten by the public.
For much more about IUSS see this Submarine Matters article of May 17, 2022.
Hi Pete,
ReplyDeleteOver at TheWarzone.com this issue has been raised by a few irate commentators: 'If they knew, why did they waste everyone's time and effort?', so I thought I'd share my thoughts with you:
1. A 'very loud sound' was detected - how loud? I'm pretty sure a 3 metre carbon-fibre can imploding at 4km depth sounds very different to a steel 60 metre diesel submarine breaking up at 300 metres depth.
When the ARA San Juan went down in 2017, the sound signature was extended over a couple of minutes, and I was watching Aarron Amick (Sub brief on Youtube), and ex-USN SSN sonar chief, dissect the sound event and phase out a sequence - internal explosion, full ballast blow, then the implosion, with the submarine breaking up and finally hitting ocean bottom (8km square debris zone)
With the Titan, there was probably one acoustic event that took place under a second. The small debris field indicates that they were close to the bottom.
2. CNN has reported that the USN updated the on-site commander about the acoustic event, but as they could not say it was definitely the submersible imploding, they continued the search.
3. James Cameron has now revealed in an interview that he 'made some calls' and found out that the Titan had a tracking system that was in a separate pressure vessel with its own power source, so for it to fail simultaneously to the loss of communication
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/23/us/james-cameron-titan-submersible-ac360-interview/index.html
Thanks Shawn
ReplyDeleteI don't dispute anything in your comment.
Why Titan's pressure hull imploded will probably be a longterm debate with such questions posed like:.
A. Did the pressure hull spontaneously fail? Titan's previous dives may have weakened its carbon fibre pressure hull in unpredictable ways - all contributing to a final collapse. Military subs and civilian submersible are usually made of steel alloy or less often with Titainium all with predictable failure conditions. One condition being a finite number of safe immersion cycles.
In contrast Titan was too "cutting edge' for a knowledge base about its safe performance to have accumulated.
or
B. Did Titan hit the bottom which instantly ruptured the pressure hull? Technical failure like fire-gas release or steering failure might have made it sink too quickly.
Regards Pete
I reckon if you watch some of the numerous interviews Cameron has given in the last few days, you'll find the answers to your questions, including why he concluded that it was a catastrophic event that occurred when the submersible was near the bottom.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.insider.com/james-cameron-says-titan-sub-likely-tried-surfacing-before-imploded-2023-6
Very interesting video that posted by an influencer who was supposed to be on the dive the day before that was cancelled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-8U08yJlb8&t=5s
Thanks Shawn
ReplyDeleteRegards Pete