Submarine Collisions - Things go bump - USS Connecticut

 "In an expression of true gratitude, sadness is conspicuous only by its absence." - Marcus Aurelius

Just a quick comment here to mention that the USS Connecticut (SSN-22), a very advanced Seawolf-class submarine, of which only three were ever built, has apparently collided with something in the South China Sea.  Eleven sailors were reportedly injured.  The reactor and propulsion systems are said to be undamaged, which is not surprising at all, as they are at the rear.  The submarine is in "safe and stable condition", and is transiting to Guam for evaluation.  Any major repairs will require a more advanced shipyard than Guam has.

The exact location of the collision, and the nature of the object she collided with are not public knowledge at present, and it's a large geographical area that this incident could have happened in.  That said, the South China Sea is a very difficult place to operate a submarine, because the water depth is often shallow.  There isn't much depth margin to operate, given that large shipping vessels that might draft 50ft below the surface, while the ocean floor might be just 150 ft deep, and irregular at that.  Even a minor unintended depth excursion could lead to hitting the bottom or banging into surface traffic. 

 They might also have slammed into another submarine that they were conducting surveillance on - or vice-versa.  We may never know the answer.  

UPDATE 1:  USS Connecticut arrived in Guam as of Friday, October 7, 2021.

UPDATE 2:  Below: Satellite image (Courtesy of The Drive thedrive.com) of USS Connecticut, docked in Guam - left image is enlarged from the right one.  The bow is at the bottom on these images.  It's clear that the sonar dome is gone, and that the hydrophone array is cocked to the port side.  

There is no continuous air blow of the forward ballast tanks, so those are likely intact.  This was probably not a ship-endangering collision, at least not for the submarine.

UPDATE 3:  Just like USS San Francisco, it appears that USS Connecticut hit an uncharted sea-mount.  Just like San Francisco, the skipper has been removed from command - along with the XO (second in command), and the Chief of the Boat (Most Senior Enlisted Guy).  As mentioned previously, operating submerged in the South China Sea is a fraught exercise.  There isn't much room between the ocean bottom and the surface.  It's surprising this doesn't happen more often.

Update 4: 12-30-2021: The sonar dome of the ship is MIA, and the sonar sphere is probably toast.  Below are a couple of images courtesy of thedrive.com 

The crew of Connecticut undoubtedly had a miserable surface transit across the Pacific to San Diego, and another one up to Bremerton, where she will be repaired.  Submarines are miserable when surfaced in the open ocean, due to their round hull.  The tend to roll quite a bit. 

In the latest defense budget, congress snuck in $10 million dollars to replace the sonar dome, and another $40 million for other repairs (probably a sonar sphere and hydrophone array - at a minimum).  As the guy in the linked article notes, the Navy has been giving itself a black eye recently, between surface ship collisions, littoral combat ship readiness, and now this.  Hopefully the Navy manages to right itself and get back to its normal excellence.