American Sub Has Mysterious Fender-Bender. Was It A Robot?

San Francisco CA

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According to Russia Today, an American submarine says it ran into a road block: Beijing calls on US to clarify details of nuclear-powered submarine collision in South China Sea, accusing it of of hiding details The Chinese Foreign Ministry has expressed its concern about an incident in the South China Sea in which a US submarine collided with an “unknown” object, sustaining significant damage and injuring several mariners. Speaking on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called on the US to clarify details concerning the USS ‘Connecticut’, a nuclear-powered Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine, which struck an unidentified object while submerged in the South China Sea on October 2. Zhao requested that the US confirm the specific location of the accident, the vessel’s intentions and more details about the collision itself, including whether it caused a leak of nuclear material. The spokesman also asked if the submarine had damaged the local marine environment. He said China and its neighbors had a right to question Washington over the incident and seek the truth. “The United States deliberately delayed and concealed details of the accident, demonstrating irresponsibility and a lack of transparency,” the spokesman told gathered media. Zhao said the root cause of the incident was the US’ insistence on sailing through the Beijing-claimed South China Sea under the banner of freedom of navigation. He also raised the US and UK’s recent deal with Australia, under the AUKUS pact, to deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra on the premise of strengthening cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Zhao said Beijing was concerned the move would create even more nuclear proliferation and accident risks in the region, while also threatening to “induce an arms race” and “undermine the construction of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Southeast Asia.” On Thursday, the US Navy reported that the ‘Connecticut’ was making its way to the American outpost of Guam after hitting an “unknown” object in the South China Sea. “The submarine remains in safe and stable condition,” the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said in a statement. “USS Connecticut’s nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational.” Some crew members sustained injuries, although none were considered life-threatening. I've been straining my brain over this and I think the USS Connecticut ran into a robot. How can this happen? My guess is the sub was navigating the South China Sea stealthily, on a mission that precluded using active sonar to detect objects in the path of the submarine lest the use of such equipment betray their presence to the network of underwater microphones and other sensors that nations use to enforce their aquatic boundaries, IE, it seems possible that the submarine was trespassing. If we infer that the submarine was trespassing then it follows that it may have encountered an anti-trespasser mechanism, IE, the collision was not an accident and was intended to convey a blunt message - 'no trespassing'. Regardless of whether this robotic encounter was accidental or the result of a deliberate maneuver, the next one will not be an accident. If this was not an accident, then the next one will be more, ah, difficult to ignore. It would be trivial to build a network of devices that communicated via some short range acoustic frequency, monitoring for sound and movement, that, when commanded, released compressed air, adjusted their buoyancy, and levitated to a previously dictated depth - think of them as underwater drones, or, rather, barrage blimps. But these barrage blimps are not intended to interfere with airplanes... they are intended to interfere with submarines, and ships. They would not need to be expensive. They could be built out of cement. They would be indistinguishable from everything else on the sea floor. They could be built in any shape - flat, round, square, bulky, long, etc. Indestructable, cheap jetsam, that turns into flotsam, then, back into jetsam, on command - and also supports, microphones, sensors, and acoustic underwater short-range networking protocols - think of it as underwater ZigBee. My hat is off to the naval personnel who came up with this non-violent mechanism for enforcing perimeters. Smart! Version Two should also say 'NO TRESPASSING', in large letters that leave the message embedded into the material of steel hulls that the device comes into forceful contact with, so that there is no mystery, back in dry dock, as to what the message was. Food for thought, mateys...