USS Connecticut suffered significant damage during the incident and several sailors onboard reported injuries.
The U.S. Navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered submarines is widely considered to be some of the best warships across the globe. So, when a Seawolf-class fast-attack boat collided with an uncharted seamount in the South China Sea in 2021, industry experts and military officials were shocked. Connecticut suffered significant damage during the incident and several sailors onboard reported injuries. While the advanced submarine was able to surface and make its way back to Guam, the whole boat was nearly lost, rendering the need for a thorough investigation into the mishap. Ultimately, negligence in several arenas was detailed as the collision’s cause. Poor watch team execution, weak risk management, and overly relaxed oversight and command climate cumulatively contributed to Connecticut’s near sinking.
Introducing USS Connecticut
As a Seawolf-class fast attack submarine, USS Connecticut (SSN-22) was designed during the Cold War to better confront the Soviet’s advancing fleet of Typhoon-class ballistic missile boats. In order to gain an advantage, the Seawolf boats were conceptualized to be larger, faster, and much quieter than their predecessors. USS Connecticut was commissioned in 1998, becoming the second boat in the class of three. Like its sister Seawolf submarines, Connecticut was designed with improved steel which enabled it to dive deeper in addition to being able to operate in shallow water. Although the United States initially planned to procure many Seawolf subs, the collapse of the Soviet Union and budgetary constraints pertaining to the program led to service to cancel the program just after three boats were produced.
Upon its introduction to the Navy, Connecticut jumped into the deployment cycle and subsequently sailed in multiple threat theatres. In 2004, she served with the Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group as part of the War on Terror. Connecticut has participated in ICEX training drills in the Arctic on several occasions, most recently in 2011. In 2019, Connecticut underwent a modernization overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard which totaled over $17 million.
An Overview of the Incident
Just three years following her modernization overhaul, Connecticut hit a pier in Point Loma, California, during a routine pre-deployment exercise. Six months later, the seamount collision incident would occur. Connecticut was headed toward Okinawa to conduct a humanitarian evacuation on October 2, 2021, when it collided with a bathymetric feature. According to reports, the following ten minutes consisted of hectic efforts to save the boat. While the crew was able to broach the ship right after the collision occurred using its forward speed, the boat came to a spot and began sinking as they were unable to deballast. An “emergency blow” ultimately surfaced the ship. Once Connecticut safely arrived in Guam, investigatory efforts ensued.
According to the results of the investigation, several factors were to blame for the mishap. The navigation review team failed to mark ten underwater hazards near the location of the collision, incorrectly assuming Connecticut would be operating in an open area. Additionally, “low standards, poor seamanship, ineffective command and control and other issues” contributed to the mishap. The investigation, however, determined that the collision was not indicative of a systematic failure, but an “anomalous performance.”
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
Image: Thiep Nguyen – Wikimedia Commons
