Nuclear Subs Good at Hiding

Good Lord. You'd think they'd know that these subs are good at hiding. The ABC news headline:

Billion-Dollar U.S. Sub Disappears Overnight for Several Hours

I'd hope it was capable of disappearing. They spend enough money on the damn things, I'd hope they'd be effective. Hard to say why they got this nervous this fast.

The Navy mobilized a search-and-rescue operation Tuesday night after it believed one of its submarines, the USS San Juan, had gone missing off the coast of Florida with 140 crew members aboard.

Communications were re-established early this morning, and it all appears to have been a case of miscommunication.

The concern was so high that Defense Secretary Robert Gates was notified of the situation overnight, as was White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley, who was preparing to brief President Bush with the news when communications were re-established with the missing submarine.

The Navy had also begun notifying the families of the 140 crew members that the submarine was missing. The incident is under investigation with the focus being on why the ship missed a pre-established communications period with surface ships.

Communications with the submarine were first lost at 7 p.m. Tuesday and were finally re-established by 5 a.m. today. The ship reported no problems, and both crew and officers were unaware of the effort under way to locate them.

I'm thinking they over-reacted. Though it is pretty hard to say these days. If they hadn't started notifications, I'm certain the press would have flipped out about how callous the military is.

Navy officials say the search was launched after surface ships spotted what appeared to be a red flare in the vicinity of where the submarine had been operating. A red flare is an indicator that a ship is in distress. With the loss of communications, a search-and-rescue effort was immediately launched.

Apparently it was actually a yellow flare, but someone couldn't tell the difference. Maybe they should find another color for these exercises. Something a little less likely to be mistaken for the real thing.