British and French nuclear submarines collided in the Atlantic

[Alan]

The Royal Navy’s HMS Vanguard and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant are both nuclear powered and were carrying nuke missiles.
Between them they had around 250 sailors on board. A senior Navy source said: “The potential consequences are unthinkable. It’s very unlikely there would have been a nuclear explosion. “But a radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster.”The collision is believed to have taken place on February 3 or 4, in mid-Atlantic. Both subs were submerged and on separate missions.As inquiries began, naval sources said it was a millions-to-one unlucky chance both subs were in the same patch of sea. Warships have sonar gear which locates submarines by sound waves. But modern anti-sonar technology is so good it is possible neither boat “saw” the other.

A senior military source said: “The lines between London and Paris have been hot.” The MoD insisted last night there had been no nuclear security breach. But this is the biggest embarrassment to the Navy since Iran captured 15 sailors in 2007. The naval source said: “Crashing a nuclear submarine is as serious as it gets.” Vanguard is one of Britain’s four V-Class subs forming our Trident nuclear deterrent. Each is armed with 16 ballistic missiles.She was last night towed into Faslane in Scotland, with dents and scrapes visible on her hull. Triomphant limped to Brest with extensive damage to her sonar dome.
Triomphant has a crew of 101. Vanguard weighs 16,000 tons, is 150 metres long and has a crew of 140. The MoD said it did not comment on submarine operations.

Oops. Two commanders have just seen their careers abruptly end

Note the comment:

Is it true that the French surrendered immediately following this incident?

 

[NameOfBeast]

Note the comment:
Is it true that the French surrendered immediately following this incident?

Not before having a piece of Camembert and doing a little monkey dance.

 

[Alan]

If the French subs behave like Parisian drivers I think it's obvious who's to blame here

 

[shadowfox]

Ok, who ran the red light?

 

[Flanders]

Note the comment:

Is it true that the French surrendered immediately following this incident?

White flag permanently attached to periscope.

 

[Thugscub]

Was a Taxi involved?

 

[Sackboy]

The collision is believed to have taken place on February 3 or 4, in mid-Atlantic.

So they kept it quiet all this time?!?

 

[knobshine]

The collision is believed to have taken place on February 3 or 4, in mid-Atlantic.

So they kept it quiet all this time?!?

Had to make sure there was no leak or anything else that might have 'frightened' the general public

 

[gpe]

Freak accident.. what are the chances of two subs in an ocean colliding

 

[Geriatrix]

They should come driving with us next to our taxis, they'll develop a 6th sense in no time.

 

[Palmela]

Britons drive on the left-hand side of the road, French on the wrong side.

 

[Blue]

They were probably playing chicken and neither of them blinked.

 

[killadoob]

Hmmm 2 satellites crash in space now 2 submarines hmmmmm something fishy going on

 

[Alan]

Hmmm 2 satellites crash in space now 2 submarines hmmmmm something fishy going on

No doubt LG will inform us of another grand evil juice conspiracy

 

[Cage Rattler]

"Probably the SSBNs for the French and Royal Navies use the same underwater locations for fixing their positions based on geographic landmarks. So in this case the boomers went to those locations to get their fixes ... at the same time."

 

[stoke]

LOL

 

[Guest 20221009]

Is it true that the French surrendered immediately following this incident?

But this is some scary stuff right here. Incompetence? systems failure on both sides?

We got nuke subs of former arch rivals colliding and satellites of cold war rivals orbiting into each other..whats next?

<insert conspiracy theory here>

 

[Sackboy]

The Brits probably thought is was a Russki sub and rammed it. That would be funny.

 

[PCW]

The subs are to good at remaining invisible. Apparently the firepower on the subs was the equivalent of more than 1200 Hiroshima bombs.

 

[savage]

Not the first time it happened strangely enough. I remember a certain story about a russain sub that sank with sailors and everyone drowned due to an alledged collission - naturally, casualties = denial as always...