kind of ironic seeing as they were in a sub

Clearly the tanker was hi-jacked by Islamic terrorists, chased down and rammed the sub whilst going full astern.

weapon of mass polution WOMP

Most likely.

that sucks.........

was the sub submergered or surfaced?? if it was submerged they only use passive sonar, meaning they only listen..the dont go "ping" like in the movies surfaced someone should have been on the conning tower and had radar operational..either way I still cant figure out how this happens..been 25 years since I did sub duty...but whale are ungodly loud..frieghters are deafening...

From what the article says it sounds like the sub was running on the surface. They said the bow was submerged. Well any nuke sub runs with the bow submerged while on the surface that's just they way are.
And Cuda is right, that commander will be reassigned and most likely lose his commission (fired).

My retired business partner was on a sub in the early 60's that hit another ship in the Mediteranean. Was his Captains fault.

With my luck I'll probably be a getting a call today to discuss the claim.

Oops.

been about 10 years since I was on sub duty, but the new Jap tankers are SMOOTH......... the old ones sounded like skeletons fornicating in a metal garbage can, the new ones sound like a rain storm........

the way this happens is the Jap tanker is extremely smooth running, and a sonar guy thinks it is a rain extremely..... till the "THUMP"....

a submarine running real close to the surface has no sonar for practrical purposes, to much wave action hitting the sonar dome.

It is the skippers fault, no matter what, if it happens on a boat, the skipper gets the glory or the blame. A few sonar guys, and a weapons officer will also get reassigned and not advance again, if they are not demoted. Sometimes schit just happens, but when it does on a boat, careers are ended real fast...