The US Navy covered up for nearly a month an incident during which a
7,000 tonne nuclear powered submarine from the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet in
Italy ran violently aground in the Mediterranean Sea north of Sardinia
last month, US Naval official confirmed Thursday.

The US Navy—by its own admission in an interview with Bellona Web—sought
to cover up the accident until relatives of the vessel’s crew, who spoke
to US papers about the sailors’ early return after the accident, made
the incident impossible to conceal.

The Los Angeles class submarine, the USS Hartford, hit the rocky sea-bed
of the Mediterranean with such force that rudders, sonar and other
electronic equipment were severely damaged, the US naval official said.
The 114-metre long USS Hartford had left its Sardinian base at La
Maddelena carrying Tomahawk missiles, possibly loaded with nuclear
warheads, the British Independent reported. The US Navy official, who
requested anonymity, however, would not confirm this.

A near miss
The USS Hartford was sailing east past the island of Capera where, soon
after midnight on October 25th, it ran aground. The US Navy, said the
naval source in a telephone interview from Washington, had “admittedly
tried to keep a lid on the accident.” But US naval brass were apparently
trumped when relatives of the submarines crew found out that the
submarine’s scheduled six-month tour of duty was being cut short a month
after it began and leaked the story to local media outlets, the US Naval
source said.

The naval source added that after “temporary repairs in Italy that will
make it seaworthy,” the USS Harford will cross the Atlantic to the
Norfolk, Virginia dockyard for full repairs. The naval source said he
had not idea how long the repairs would take.

The naval source said that the Hartford’s reactor had suffered no damage
and the crew had suffered no injuries. But the Sixth Fleet’s image, in
the eyes of its Italian hosts, sustained a heavy blow. Reaction in
Italy—both to the discovery of the cover-up and the incident itself—has
been rage.

Rage in Italy

"It's the umpteenth demonstration not only of the grave risks to which
the civilian population is exposed [...] but also of the culture of
silence that invariably covers military activities in Sardinia," Italian
Green Party MP, Mauro Bulgarelli said in Parliament, according to the
Independent. "Our country was denuclearised nearly 20 years ago, due to
the wish of the overwhelming majority of the Italian population. It is
unacceptable that, thanks to American troops based in our territory, the
nuclear risk should be reintroduced. In another age, that would be
called colonisation."

Italy’s Minister of the Environment, Altero Matteoli, said that the USS
Hartford incident was “a serious incident" and said an official had been
sent to investigate, the Independent reported. But, Matteoli said that
"first reports [from the site of the incident] did not mention
environmental problems."

Immediate firings

In spite of what appears to be a lucky near miss, the incident’s gravity
was underscored by the fact the both the USS Hartford’s captain,
Commander Christopher Van Metre, and his squadron commander, Captain
Greg Parker—who was also on board at the time the sub ran aground—were
immediately fired, said the US navy official. When the USS Oklahoma,
another US submarine, hit a Norwegian Merchant ship east of the Straits
of Gibraltar last year, that subs captain was only fired two weeks after
the incident, the US navy source said.

A spokeswoman for the US Sixth Fleet, which is based in Gaeta, near
Naples, told the Independent Wednesday that the two officers were
immediately removed from their posts because their commander, Rear
Admiral Stephen Stanley "no longer had confidence in their ability to
command." Six other crewmembers, including two officers, have also been
disciplined.

The US Navy’s Los Angeles class submarine
The United States Navy has 51 nuclear powered Los Angeles Class attack
submarines. It is an attack submarine equipped for anti-submarine
warfare, intelligence gathering, show-of-force missions, insertion of
special forces, strike missions, mining and search and rescue.

Nine Los Angeles class submarines were deployed in the Gulf War in 1991,
during which Tomahawk missiles were launched from two of the submarines.
It is unknown how many are currenly deployed in the ongoing US-Iraqi
crisis, but the Sixth Fleet provided significant sea support during the
latest Guld War.

- Scotty

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