US -- But Not Necessarily NATO --Tracks a Russian Submarine for the First Time

choi

Julian E Barnes, A Russian Ghost Sub Stalks the Sea; The US tracked the stealthy Krasnodar, a throwback to Cold War tussles beneath the waves. Wall Street Journal, Oct 21, 2017 (front page).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-r ... cold-war-1508509841

Quote:

"The Krasnodar, a Russian attack submarine * * * the diesel-electric sub was pursued by the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush, its five accompanying warships, MH-60R Seahawk helicopters and P-8 Poseidon anti-sub jets flying out of Italy.  The US and its [NATO] allies had set out [by late May, this year when the Russian sub, having departed from Libya, fired a volley missiles of cruise missiles into Syria (on May 29, according to the map. See (d)(i)] to track the Krasnodar as it moved to its new home in the Black Sea. * * * One of the first US efforts to track a Russian sub during combat since the Cold War.

"An unexpected resurgence in Russian submarine development, which deteriorated after the breakup of the Soviet Union, has reignited the undersea rivalry of the Cold War, when both sides deployed fleets of attack subs to hunt for rival submarines carrying nuclear-armed ballistic missiles [two types of subs: attack and missile-carrying].

"When underwater, enemy submarines are heard, not seen -- and Russian brags that its new subs are the world's quietest. The Krasnodar is wrapped in  echo-absorbing skin to evade sonar psee (d)(2)], its propulsion system is mounted on noise-cutting dampers [which I imagine is similar to a shock-absorbent]; rechargeable batteries drive t in near silence, leaving little for sub hunters to hear. 'The black hole,' US allies call it.

"When the Krasnodar was completed in 2015 at the St Petersburg's Admiralty Shipyards, Russia boasted it could elude the West's most advanced sonar. NATO planners worry subs could cut trans-Atlantic communication cables or keep US ships reaching Europe in a crisis, as Nazi subs did in World War II.

"On Aug 9, the Krasnodar arrived in Crimea to join the Black Sea fleet, Russia officials said.

"A new nuclear-powered class of Russian submarines even more sophisticated than the Krasnodar, called the Yasen, are designed to destroy aircraft carriers. They are build with low-magnetic steel to better eade detection and can dive deeper than larger US submarines.

Note:
(a) The report is locked behind paywall. There is no need to read the rest of the text, which reveals no secrets.
(b) There is no Wiki page for the Krasnodar. which is broached in the page for "Kilo class submarine."  Numbered "B-265," the sub was commissioned in 2015. The sub was named after Krasnodar, a city close to Crimea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnodar
(section 1 Name)
(c) Yasen-class submarine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasen-class_submarine
(attack submarine; only one sub -- Severodvinsk (named after a Russian city with a sub shipyard) -- so far in commission (in 2013) )

(d) This report carries two illustrations.
(i) The first is map, showing USS George HW Bush tracks the Krasnodar only a very short portion (at eastern Mediterranean) of the long journey: Apr 10: the Krasnodar was at Baltic Sea, and started sailing for Crimea; May 5 : UK took over tracking duty; May 13: A US navy cruiser takes over the tracking as the Krasnodar reached Gibraltar;

The map shows that this Russian sub had been tracked all the time (even while at its old home port: headquarters of Northern fleet). The map also collaborates the text, showing the Russian sub and America's carrier strike group circle to "eye" (quoting the text) each other.  
(ii) The second illustration lists the capability of predator and the prey. I will skip the carrier (whose description is banal).  Russia's Krasnodar (B-265)": echo-evading coasting; 4 Kalibr cruise missiles; 18 torpedoes.

Kalibr cruise missiles, comparable to Tomahawks, were fired into ISIS territory in Syria, Russian Ministry of Defense announced at the time.

(e) Norman Polmar and  Kenneth J Moore, Cold War Submarines: The design and construction of US and Soviet submarines. Washington DC: Potomac Books, Inc, 2004, at page 81
("For the first time in Soviet shipbuilding, a low-magnetic steel was used for the manufacturing of the outer hull to reduce the submarine's vulnerability to magnetic mines. This allowed a 50 percent reduction in the deperming (demagnetizing) equipment and related cables fitted in the submarine's hull")
(i) The quotation is about Project 645. See Soviet submarine K-27
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-27
(Commissioned 1963; the only submarine of Project 645; "That project produced one test model nuclear submarine, which incorporated a pair of experimental VT-1 nuclear reactors")
(ii) deperm (vt); etymology)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deperm
(ii) dehaussing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing
(which is now also called deperming)

(e) Norman Polmar and Kenneth J Moore, Cold War Submarines; The design and construction of US and Soviet submarines. Washington DC: Potomac Books, Inc, 2004. at page 81
https://books.google.com/books?i ... bmarine&f=false
("For the first time in Soviet shipbuilding, a low-magnetic steel was used for the manufacturing of the outer hull to reduce the submarine's vulnerability to magnetic mines. This allowed a 50 percent reduction in the deperming (demagnetizing) equipment and related cables fitted fin the submarine's hull")
(i) Soviet submarine K-27
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-27
(Commissioned 1963; the only submarine of Project 645; "That project produced one test model nuclear submarine, which incorporated a pair of experimental VT-1 nuclear reactors")
(ii) deperm (vt; etymology)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deperm
(iii) degaussing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing
(which is now also called deperming)