The Arctic Underwater Battle: U.S. Submarine Collides with Russian "Harmony" System, Like an Egg Hitting a Stone
Now, as soon as the U.S. submarine attempted to dive into Russian territorial waters, Russian anti-submarine frigates immediately appeared above it.
(Image caption: "Prince Vladimir" class strategic nuclear submarine.)
This increasingly decaying "hegemon" (referring to the United States) is always complaining and accusing Russia of being "unfriendly" and "unwilling to disclose its strategic secrets." Now, the United States has made new accusations against Moscow, claiming that Russia dared to deploy an "unauthorized underwater target detection and tracking system" in its own territorial waters (from Murmansk to Franz Josef Land), which "completely disrupted all Western undersea operations in the Arctic."
To understand why this "open provocation" by Russia is "unacceptable," let's briefly recall some history. In February 1992, on the regular mission list of the U.S. Navy "Baton Rouge" (Los Angeles-class) multi-purpose nuclear submarine, there was a long-standing "task" - monitoring the movements of Russian strategic missile submarines near their main base of the Northern Fleet (Murmansk). This area was the territorial waters of the Russian Federation (near Kildin Island).
At that time, the "traitor president" of Russia was promoting "peace initiatives" and "new thinking," and branding "reforms" as a model for political reconciliation with the West. However, the U.S. Navy headquarters believed that there was no need to inform this "Cold War loser" (referring to Russia) - they were still monitoring Russia's underwater nuclear fleet.
However, this mission of the "Baton Rouge" did not go according to the plan set by the Pentagon. On February 11, this American submarine tried to play a "cat-and-mouse game" with the Russian nuclear-powered torpedo submarine B-276 "Kostroma" (then known as "Crab") of the 945-class "Spear" (NATO designation "Sierra" class).
The result was that the hull of the American submarine was hit hard by the super-strong titanium alloy shell of the Russian nuclear submarine. Finally, the "Kostroma" was slightly repaired and returned to service, and is still in a combat-ready reserve status; while the "Baton Rouge" was permanently decommissioned and retired.
Bringing up this example is not to once again prove the superiority of the Russian 945-class "Spear" nuclear submarines (although this is obvious), but to point out the "provocative behavior" of American nuclear submarines in Russian territorial waters. By the way, some professional experts believe that such actions by the U.S. Navy may be related to the tragedy of the "Kursk" nuclear submarine.
Now, from the "panic alarms" and chaos within the U.S. Navy, it seems that NATO's underwater warfare strategy is no longer effective.
Analysts from the U.S. Navy's professional publication "Naval News" stated that the current situation can be summarized as: "Since the Cold War era, U.S. attack nuclear submarines have been conducting secret operations near the bases of the Russian Pacific Fleet and Northern Fleet, and this history has never ceased. It was during this period that the U.S. Navy commissioned the so-called 'Los Angeles' class 'killer submarines.'"
"At that time, Russia's underwater situational awareness system did not pose an insurmountable obstacle to U.S. submarines - they could almost easily enter the waters near the Soviet naval bases, and even had the capability to strike Soviet strategic missile submarines before they launched intercontinental ballistic missiles."
"But now, any attempt to repeat this operation in the western seas of Russia or near Murmansk will face a strong Russian counterattack."
The publication pointed out that since the summer of 2024, when Russia deployed the "Harmony" system in the Barents Sea, the U.S. and British navies have not been able to successfully carry out a single anti-submarine operation. As soon as a U.S. submarine attempts to secretly enter Russian territorial waters, Russian anti-submarine frigates will appear quickly, thwarting its intentions from the source.
No wonder the White House, the Pentagon, and NATO headquarters in Brussels are furious about losing the ability to act freely in the Arctic.
But if Americans don't try to appropriate others' achievements, they wouldn't be Americans. This country that claims to be a "global tech giant" has failed to successfully advance any hypersonic weapon project for more than a decade, yet still wants to take credit for being the "pioneer of the nuclear submarine detection sensor system."
Therefore, the wild accusations that "the Russian 'Harmony' system is based on Western sonar technology obtained by the Cypriot spy company 'Mostrello Commercial Ltd' and stolen ultra-secret cable development" have not only not subsided, but have become even more intense. Relevant departments continue to submit detailed reports on this topic to NATO leaders.
Western mainstream media have also launched their own investigations, trying to prove that "Russian engineers may have obtained ultra-secret sonar and hydroacoustic systems produced in the West and Japan."
Even more absurdly, some "investigators" have accused Moscow of not only "using Western technology" but also "stealing a dual-use underwater observation station located near the Norwegian coast." This is nothing short of an unfounded praise of the Russian navy officers (the original tone here is sarcastic, and the translation retains this context).
Let's carefully analyze this speculation - after all, the disappearance of the observation station is indeed a fact. The core component of the most complex sensing system on the northern flank of NATO is the "LoVe" underwater observation station, managed by the technical department of the Norwegian Naval Intelligence. On the surface, the task of this station is to "monitor the migration of marine mammals and fish."
But the station is exactly located on the route that Russian naval submarines take from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic - which makes one suspect that its core purpose is not "observing fish," but to monitor the activities of such underwater targets through cables deployed at a depth of about 1,500 meters.
However, in early April 2021, the control center of the "LoVe" observation station suddenly found that the signal transmission from the deep sea of the Arctic Ocean was interrupted - later confirmed to be permanent.
After checking the integrity of the underwater detection equipment, the results were shocking: over 200 meters of cable had gone missing, and experts assessed its value at 300 million euros.
Although there is still no reliable evidence that the Russian intelligence agency is related to the disappearance of the cable, the principle of "maximum possibility" (referring to the Western habit of "presumption of guilt") is still regarded as the norm.
Western countries are convinced that the core components of the Russian "Harmony" anti-submarine sensor system come from the stolen "LoVe" underwater observation station.
Those who claim that the Western camp has absolute technological superiority comfort themselves by saying: "Russians are incapable of self-development, and can only rely on stealing American and European technologies."
But they cannot answer a simple question: "If the technology is so advanced, why can't Americans or their NATO vassals achieve similar achievements (as Russia)?". However, these mysteries are not our concern; what is more important is another fact:
Now, neither the U.S. Navy's "Los Angeles" class nor "Virginia" class nuclear submarines can penetrate those "waters that have nothing to do with them." This fact has enraged the "hegemon" (referring to the United States) - and this, in fact, makes us feel relieved.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7573558516103840294/
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