U.S. SUBMARINE COLLISION IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA. IS IT A COVERUP?

The USS Connecticut (SSN-22) collided with an unknown or undisclosed underwater object in the South China Sea on October 2, 2021. The accident damaged the Sea Wolf-class fast-attack submarine and injured nearly a dozen crew members.

The U.S. Navy said it was not another vessel, such as a Chinese submarine, but is that the truth? While writing my latest two books, Spies of the Deep and Status-6, I rode aboard the USS Connecticut during an Ice Exercise (ICEX) in the Arctic. Every few years, the Navy sends two attack subs to an ice flow about 200 miles north of Alaska, where they fight each other. During simulated battles, they fire dummy torpedoes, hide behind ice keels, and test the latest equipment and tactics under the polar ice cap. Operating in the icy north is quite different from doing so in the Pacific Ocean or South China Sea. Fresh water mingles with salt water to create strange anomalies that can affect sonar, navigation, fire (weapons) control, and other equipment. Submariners need special equipment and training to minimize accidents, including collisions. Only a few boats, including the Sea Wolf-class, can surface through thicker ice. Other subs must find thinner ice, which creates a dangerous situation. In the event of a reactor shutdown or fire, the boat can’t surface until the crew finds a thin ice patch. In one ICEX, which lasts about a month, British sailors died when a fire broke out on a UK boat, and it could not surface immediately.

The USS Connecticut was likely on a stealth espionage mission in the South China Sea when it hit…something. I wrote about these missions in my books, Red November and Spies of the Deep. During the Cold War, the navy codenamed these Holy Stone. As a former submariner and navy diver, I recall nearly being killed on several of these missions. In Spies of the Deep, I wrote about a collision between my submarine, the USS Drum (SSN-677) and the K-324—a Soviet Victor-III-class submarine. We were a mile off the coast of Vladivostok harbor, well inside the Russian twelve-mile territorial limit. Like the Connecticut, we suffered damage, flooding, and injuries. The Soviets then hunted us for three days while they fired torpedoes, dropped depth charges, and pinged the ocean with sonar. The Navy denied that an incident had occurred and buried it for two decades. Have they done it again with the Connecticut?

What did the USS Connecticut hit? The South China Sea is fairly shallow, so the Connecticut may have collided with an underwater sea mount like the USS San Francisco (SSN-711) did several years ago. They might have smacked a dumped shipping container, or they could have run into a Chinese underwater installation. Tensions heated in this area after China built sand islands to lay claim to vast areas considered as international waters. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) tries to draw lines around who owns what in world oceans, but the treaty—unsigned by the U.S.—is quite vague. China has its eye on trillions of dollars of natural resources in the South China Sea, including oil, gas, and minerals. They can’t own these treasures if they are in international waters. Shallow patches in the region have allowed the Chinese to dump enough sand to create bases around which they can draw large circles. They claim to own all the goodies inside those circles while the U.S. and its allies call it cheating.

China defends these fake islands with their formidable navy and several new and sophisticated submarines. I can neither confirm nor deny conducting spy missions aboard a nuclear submarine during the Cold War, sneaking in close behind Chinese submarines operating out of Hainan Island. On these missions, I can’t verify that subs might close to within a few hundred yards to capture Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) by recording various sounds. I can state that there have been dozens of collisions between submarines across the years. Perhaps the most famous may have caused the demise of the Russian submarine Kursk in August 2000. I wrote about this tragedy in my book Spies of the Deep and exposed a coverup between Russia and the U.S. The USS Memphis (SSN-691) and USS Toledo (SSN-769) were on Holy Stone espionage missions while trying to gain SIGINT on the new Shkval rocket torpedo being test fired by the Kursk. Evidence shows a possible collision that may have led to the demise of 118 Russian sailors.

Did something like this happen to the USS Connecticut in the South China Sea? Did they collide with a Chinese submarine or underwater installation? If so, we may never know. To this day, the U.S. Navy has never officially confirmed the collision between the USS Drum and K-324. They state that both the Memphis and Toledo were nowhere near the Kursk, despite evidence to the contrary.

When I heard about the Connecticut’s recent accident, I recalled standing aboard this same submarine in the Arctic while we surfaced from beneath a thick patch of ice. A monitor in the control room displayed grainy images of the polar ice cap a few hundred feet above the sub’s sail. Nervous crewmen with white knuckles gripped controls. One wrong move could be deadly. Commander Michael Varney shouted orders, which the Officer of the Deck repeated. My heart throbbed while the boat inched upward. The sail rammed through the ice with a thunderous bang. Ice keels scraped against the hull and caused loud screeching, like fingernails on a chalkboard. My ears popped as the Chief of the Watch blew the ballast tanks to push us toward the surface. The exercise lasted only minutes but felt like an eternity.

Having spent a week aboard the Connecticut, my heart goes out to the crew. I understand what it’s like to hear alarm bells ring while racing to deal with a collision. I know how it feels to see fellow crew members get injured. And I recall not being able to tell a single soul, including my family, the truth about what really happened.

William Craig Reed is the New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning and Amazon-bestselling non-fiction books, Red November and Spies of the Deep, as well as the award-winning novel, Status-6: An NCIS Special Ops thriller.