No threat to the public when the sub is docked a long way from anywhere the public has access to. She is tied up in the Eastern Docks, accessed through dock gate 4, so unless you have business there you aren't allowed in.
Oh I see, you wanted to scaremonger because the sub is nuclear powered. A 7,000tonne boat powered by a reactor the size of a dustbin encased in steel and concrete. Incident involving small arms fire aimed at specific personnel (apparently), not in the vicinity of the reactor room. Risk to the public= as near to zero as possible...
Every comment I have read about the incident in the last 24 hours has had a whiff of scaremongering about it, with most trying to raise worries about a madman launching the boat's nuclear missiles/torpedoes. Well as she is an SSN (hunter killer) and not an SSBN (Bomber), she has no nuclear weapons of any description aboard. The Astute class have the new 'Core H' in their reactors, which will last the design life of the boat (25 years) so refuelling is not needed, and the reactor itself is well sealed and surrounded by thick concrete and steel. Small arms fire isn't going to damage the reactor in any way that would lead to a release of radiation or radioactive material. Everyone needs to calm down about this. It appears to be a 'disgruntled' seaman taking out his frustrations on a couple of officers, for reasons we can only speculate about at this point (and I'm not suggesting we should either) and was neither in the vicinity of or in any way involved the ships reactor.
A tragic incident without a doubt, but not a nuclear incident by any means. I live only three mies from where this incident took place and I'm not packing my bags in readiness to evacuate.
A tragic incident without a doubt, but not a nuclear incident by any means. I live only three mies from where this incident took place and I'm not packing my bags in readiness to evacuate.
MwRYum
Major
You can't expect the uninformed to understand how complicated to actually launch ordinance from a submarine, simply it ain't a one-person job like they'd see in Hollywood movies...in this case, think the sailor's psych review kinda fell through the cracks and thus none saw this coming I believe.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Well not any more. today they have a lot more safety systems and they actually use them. in years gone by however things were not as secure. I saw a documentary recently where they were interviewing a former member of SAC who was one of the minutemen operators. In it he commented that he had watched the movie Dr. Strangelove and had an extra laugh as they did not need a General Jack D Ripper too star World war three, He could have all on his own. As although they were told by the DOD (under Robert McNamara) too install a combination lock on the launcher they were told the code. it was not kept from them an said code did not change it was not until the late 1970's that they actually changed the code on a regular basis and kept it form the missile crews until that time the code consisted of zeroing the lock.
I Do however leverage a lot of blame for Fear mongering against the Modern Reporters. All of them it seems too me want too be Raymond Burr in the opening scenes of the Americanized version of Godzilla describing in epic pros the destruction of just about everything.
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