Word: ballast
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rejected any suggestion that U.S. submarines were involved. Later, Russian officials dropped the collision claim and blamed an explosion in the weapons area, a theory supported by Western experts, who said it could have come from a torpedo or missile or a high-pressure air tank used to blow ballast water when surfacing. According to Jane's Fighting Ships, the Kursk normally carries 24 cruise missiles able to deliver either 1,650 lbs. of high explosives or a nuclear warhead a distance of 300 miles, plus as many as 28 torpedoes with similar warhead capability (although the Russians said...
...because of a rigorous certification program that gives each key piece of a submarine--including its hull, pipes, valves and flood barriers--a serial number pinpointing its source and whom to hold accountable if it fails. Critical systems are duplicated. For example, there are three ways to empty the ballast tanks on Trident missile boats. U.S. submarine crews are repeatedly drilled, ashore and afloat, with two key aims: to keep their sub safe and, if that fails, to get out alive. The top concerns for crews include knowing how to restrict flooding once the hull has been breached...
...Information is sketchy about the fate of the Kursk: Although Moscow insists that the vessel's two nuclear reactors hadn't failed, they've clearly been shut off, leaving the vessel unable to generate the ballast to surface. The use of the world collision, of course, begs the question of what exactly the Kursk is supposed to have struck. The Barents Sea's strategic location makes it one of the world's most heavily trafficked submarine routes, but there's no indication thus far that the stricken vessel was hit by another...