When the USS Kitty Hawk collided with a Soviet submarine.

there was a period between 1979 and 1985 when the Cold War began decidedly more heated following with the international response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the more forceful attitudes of US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher both of whom largely rejected the policy of debt on that had held sway in the previous decade both sides engaged in nuclear proliferation and there was rise in the low intensity conflicts called proxy wars at the time and into this tense environment just a month after the death of Soviet premier EURion drop-off an event occurred that could have well sparked all-out war a Soviet nuclear submarine collided with an American aircraft carrier the 1984 collision between the Soviet submarine K 314 and the USS Kitty Hawk is history that deserves to be remembered it was March twenty first nineteen eighty four and the supercarrier USS Kitty Hawk was in the Sea of Japan commissioned in April 1961 Kitty Hawk was the first of a class of three so-called super carriers upgraded versions of the previous Forrestal class capable of carrying 85 aircraft with a crew complement of 5624 officers and men the Kitty Hawk its Eartha Vietnam War and continued serving in the western Pacific in 1984 Kitty Hawk was the lead carrier and flagship of the u.s. 7th fleets battle group Bravo operating in the western Pacific and North Arabian Sea she'd been sent to the Sea of Japan in March to participate in team spirit exercises team spirit was a joint exercise of the United States and the Republic of Korea held annually from 1976 to 1993 the exercise was designed to evaluate and improve the interoperability of the ROK and US forces team spirit was intended not only to improve security cooperation and war fighting ability with US and ROK forces but to deter aggression and provocations from neighboring North Korea still the exercise was defensive in nature and North Korea was given prayer North notification that would be occurring during the exercise ROK and US forces stationed inside the country were augmented by US Army Navy Marine air force units from outside the ROK Kittyhawk along with eight escort ships was assigned to support team spirit 84 aircraft of the Kitty Hawk including f-14a tomcat fighter aircraft a 6e intruder and a 70 Corsair attack aircraft an e-2c Hawkeye early warning aircraft have provided air cover for simulated amphibious landings by u.s. and ROK Marines according to its official report high tempo operations combined with adverse weather conditions constantly tested the professional capabilities of aviators and ship handlers alike the operation so close to the Soviet Far East attracted the attention of the Soviet military Kitty Hawk reported that over the course of the exercise the carrier and its escorts came in contact with 43 Soviet aircraft six Soviet surface elements and one Soviet submarine the submarine was the victor class submarine Kate 3:14 designated project 671 or scorpionfish by the Soviet Navy and given the NATO designation victor wan the victor class was a series of nuclear-powered attack submarines designed to counter enemy vessels especially american nuclear attack sub lanes displacing 4700 unsub merged the 309 foot 5-inch k 314 had a crew complement of 94 and was capable making a speed of 25 knots although its exact armament at the time is still classified the submarine was likely armed with both torpedoes and missiles including SS in 15 starfish nuclear-armed anti-submarine missiles the Kitty Hawk was aware there's being shadowed by the submarine since it had left the South Korean port of Pusan on March 19th such behavior was not uncommon as an officer aboard Kitty Hawk explained to the New York Times they play cat-and-mouse with us all the time as part of their tracking the US had simulated destroying the submarine that has had units in a position where they could have destroyed the submarine in a combat situation 15 times a former aviator who piloted a p3 b orion anti-submarine and surveillance aircraft explained chasing ivan was great fun serious business but nevertheless great fun the only problem was that when you caught ivan you had to let him go well the Kittyhawk knew that they were being shadowed by the submarine and had a general idea where it was trekking submarines was not an exact science David Rogers who was that captain of the Kitty Hawk was quoted at the time saying sometimes we had it we knew exactly where he was sometimes he slipped away from us on the night of March 21st the Kitty Hawk was leaving the Sea of Japan heading south to the Yellow Sea as they deployed the Kitty Hawk escorts moved away some 2.5 miles distant this in essence left the Kitty Hawk blind to the location of the K 314 the carrier did not have its own sonar equipment but instead relied on its escort vessels and aircraft to track the submarine if it were a wartime situation the summering would never have gotten within the battle group Pentagon spokesman Michael birch explained in a UPI report in peacetime it's not required that the Navy keep 24-hour watch on Soviet submarines Berg continued these were peacetime conditions it's not unusual to lose contact still the pilot of the p3 Bo Ryan explained that he and his crew knew that the summary was in the area of the carrier and in fact speculated that the submarine was attempting a maneuver where tries to hide underneath the carrier to mask the submarine sound technique to wit the pilots head generally doesn't work but the K 314 wasn't trying to hide instead that the submarine under the command of captain vladimir if Sinko had lost track of the Kittyhawk the most likely reason was simply the rough seas an expert quoted in the Washington Post commented that is very confusing world beneath the surface observed that the Sea of Japan which is relatively shallow with is teeming with commercial and military ships is one of the noisiest in the world confusing the sonar that submarines use to track other ships there is an additional problem as well as sonar which tracks sound leaves a notorious blind spot in the baffles behind a submarine where the noise of its own screws makes it impossible to detect other ships across them approximately 60 degree arc some sailor suggests that either the Kittyhawk had made an abrupt course change or was engaging in a deceptive lighting exercise so the ship would change its running lighting configuration to appear like the guided missile cruiser USS Long Beach while such operations would have been intended to confuse surface ships it may also confused the k3 14 in any case having lost his target captain if Cinco decided to bring the teen 314 to periscope depth when he looked through the periscope he was stunned to see that he and the Kittyhawk were on a collision course he immediately ordered the sub ring to dive but by then it was already too late and approximately 10:00 p.m. some 150 miles off the coast of Korea in rough seas in pitch-black night the nuclear-powered an armed Soviet submarine K 314 collided with the nuclear-armed carrier USS Kitty Hawk Captain Rogers was on the bridge at the time bothering one of the ship's radars he said we felt a sudden shudder a very violent shudder the radar was designed to detect surface contacts and would have not have seen the still submerged submarine there was no indication that anyone on the Kittyhawk saw the submarine in the moments before the collision and there likely would have been time to make a response if they had a sailor on the flight decks up the shutter to explaining that is something you normally don't feel on a carrier I said well then the messroom said his trade jumped up four inches others however seemed to barely notice riding on the shut off as rough seas one sailor described acting shipmates in a TV lounge if they felt something and they insisted that he was crazy on the p3 Orion they could hear a great scraping noise through their hydrophones sailors on the Kittyhawk said the scraping noise lasted five to eight minutes as the submarine dragged along the keel the key 3:14 apparently rolled over as it dragged losing ballast control this would have thrown the crew around rather violently but might have saved the conning-tower communications equipment which would have been damaged destroyed had they collided with the giant aircraft carrier if cinqo was quoted on the website Russia beyond recalling net the first thought was that the conning tower had been destroyed in the submarines body was cut to pieces they confirmed that the periscope antennas were still working when they felt a second strike on the starboard side the collision could have been much worse it was a glancing blow off the right side of Kittyhawks bow the second strike that of singko felt was when the submarines propeller struck the hull of the kitty hawk breaking off a piece that was left in the Kittyhawks bow the submarine was forced to surface the Kitty Hawk immediately launched a pair of sh3 seeking helicopters to render assistance the submarine appeared to have a dent or crease between its Stern and sail reported moving into slow 5 knots towards the Soviet naval base at Vladivostok while the guided missile cruiser Petropavlovsk steamed apparently to the submarines assistance the submarine did not answer the Kittyhawks offers of assistance nor did it request any and the Soviet government refused to comment news reports at the time said that the Kitty Hawk detected no nuclear leak from the submarine and that President Reagan was apprised of the situation the Kitty Hawk remained for approximately two hours in order to be available in case it needed to render assistance but then continued on its course other US Navy ships remained in the area while the initial reports were that the Kitty Hawk had taken only superficial damage within a day of the Navy reported that the carrier was taking on water the collision had ruptured a fuel tanks during aircraft fuel which was then becoming contaminated with seawater the crew had to pump the fuel from the tank the Kitty Hawk had a hole in the bow on a gash from the submarines propeller below the waterline divers the next day brought up a piece of the propeller that been lodged in the hull on the crew had it mounted in a hangar the Navy described the damages minor saying that could be repaired at sea it was not significant enough to affect normal operations although crew members aboard Kitty Hawk speculated that there was a significant risk for the crew of the submarine after being rolled over in a collision the Russian Navy has never provided information on the extent of the damage to the cave 3:14 several members of the Kitty Hawk and other US ship's crews noted seeing welding sparks as members of the key 314 crew engaged in apparent repairs the K 314 was not able to return to base under its own power and was eventually met by a sea going tug the report in Russia byung quotes captain F Cinco saying that there was no loss of life aboard the submarine the general feeling of where the Kitty Hawk was that the submarine had taken more damage than the carrier prompting jokes about the Kitty Hawk being the first anti-submarine carrier weapon the crew painted a red submarine on the ship's island near the bridge to mark their victory but the navy later made them remove it the Kitty Hawk underwent repairs at Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines which crewmembers described as filling the damaged voids with Khan creet during the repairs that was discovered that some of the submarines specialized outer coating had scraped off on to Kittyhawk could be analyzed along the u.s. a minor intelligence coup in the aftermath of the collision the US Navy was quick to blame the key 314 for the collision they know that the key 314 was in violation of several elements of the 1972 incidents at sea accord that was specifically intended to reduce the chance of such collisions the submarine was operated within the American formation did not use required navigational lights submarines are also required to give way to other vessels when they are surfacing Admiral James D Watkins the u.s. Chief of Naval Operations at the time described if cinqo is showing uncharacteristically poor seamanship and not staying clear of the Kittyhawk while there was no official response from the soviets russia beyond noted that captain if cinqo was relieved of his post suggesting that they agreed that the collision was his responsibility the USS Kitty Hawk continue to serve clear into the next century and wasn't decommissioned until 2009 after an impressive nearly forty nine years service in the United States Navy she was the last oil-fired US carrier to serve in this of 2019 there's actually some talk of possibly re commissioning the Kitty Hawk is the easiest way to achieve president trumps goal of a 12 carrier fleet there are also efforts to raise money to turn the Kitty Hawk into a museum ship a prospect that would be far less expensive than trying to do the same with a retired nuclear aircraft carrier in 1985 the K 314 was involved in a nuclear accident during refueling fuel rods were removed improperly and caused the reactor to meltdown caused radioactive contamination across a six kilometre area killed 10 people that were engaged in the procedure in the end it's difficult to judge the impact of the collision in 1984 the damage to both ships was eventually described as minor and both fleets kept the event from escalating into something much larger but certainly a Soviet nuclear submarine running into a nuclear-armed US aircraft carrier at the height of the Cold War was an event that was well fraught with danger and of course there could have been significant loss of life especially if there have been damaged to the K 3 14 s reactor core sometimes the story about what did not happen says interesting is the story that what did the fact that an event was well far less catastrophic than it might have been is history that deserves to be remembered I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets a forgotten history between ten and fifteen minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on Facebook Instagram Twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 1,929,204

Keywords: history, the history guy, US Navy, military history, us history, uss kitty hawk, history guy

Id: ACSzlEX362o

Length: 14min 4sec (844 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 23 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/kayletsallchillout]

Fascinating. I've never heard of this event.

[u/_sammyg23]

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[u/floydi15]

Thank you for posting. This is great.