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MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian nuclear submarine (K-159) with a skeleton crew of 10 has sunk in the Barents Sea, Moscow's Ekho Moskvy radio station has reported. The radio station quoted a defence ministry spokesman as saying at least two people were killed, one was rescued and that the submarine's nuclear reactor was switched off when it went down. The submarine from Russia's Northern Fleet was in transport when it sank and there were no weapons on board, the radio quoted the spokesman as saying on Saturday. An air and sea search operation for survivors has been launched, the radio reported. This latest incident is uncomfortably close to the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk which went down three years ago this month in the Barents Sea, killing all its 118 crew. Another similarity is that Russian President Vladimir Putin is on holiday, as he was when the Kursk went down, this time in Sardinia with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Methinks the Russian navy needs a lot of work!

Ozzy

I shudder to think what else is going to happen with that fleet,the whole lot seems like a major disaster.
These accidents could go on for years and the Russians can't pay their own military let alone react adequately to these accidents. Wouldn't be a Russian sailor for quids.

I was just thinking, Russian/Soviet Submariner seems to be synonimous with Kamikazee.
Russia/Soviet Union have lost 5 nuclear subs now;
K-8, Bay of Biscay April 10 1970, 52 dead
K219, Atlantic Ocean (nr Bermuda) October 6 1986, 4 dead.
K-278, Norwegian Sea April 7 1989, 41 dead.
K-141, Barents Sea August 12 2000, 118 dead.
However the US have only lost two nuclear subs, the Thresher and the Scorpion, both with all hands. On average you seem to have a better chance of getting off a Russian sub! Mind you the US haven't lost one in over 3 decades, so on the whole I'd sooner ride with them

i've heard that four of the crewmen were rescued. phew!

That is a step in the right direction, but 4 are still unaccounted for.

Ozzy

K219, Atlantic Ocean (nr Bermuda) October 6 1986, 4 dead.

isn't that the one which the amreicans tried to lift to get the missiles

No K219 was the one that nearly had a meltdown on the Eastern seaboard of the US and if it hadn't been for Seaman Sergei Preminin who gave his life to shutdown the reactor then the Eastern Seaboard would have glowed for quite a long time!
The whole story can be read in the book Hostile Waters.

Ozzy

PS. The recovery operation was the Hughes Glomar Explorer recovery of a Golf II sub, they were diesel/electric not nuclear.

Bad news
The Northern Fleet have made an official statement. One man recovered alive, two dead bodies. The remaining seven are listed as dead. They will be planning to salvage the K-159 from the seabed in the same manner as the Kursk.

Ozzy

If I understand correctly, the russkies have so many decommisioned subs laying around, they're having trouble scrapping them all.  In some places, they are simply rotting in harbors, rusting away and becoming obstacles for navigation.

Yes that is true, most are just rotting away litterally at their piers waiting for the money to scrap them.