2 Russian attack subs off US east coast

[Dane_in_LA]

Seriously. A sub that has been spotted is not projecting force, it is in trouble.

I would be very interested to know why Russia is showing force. Dont you?

Looks like the Russian military is trying to demonstrate that they're still relevant, never mind that their country is in no state to support them for any major operations. US overreactions - rather like yours - are helping them quite a bit, of course.

If the Russians were very clever, they'd have their subs to show up in Cuba (or Venezuela, I guess) with no previous mention of the mission. That'd be a bit of a propaganda coup. Of course, the US Navy just went and spoiled the surprise, which is actually pretty agile diplomatic maneuvering.

[mwruckman]

Originally Posted by yachtcare

I'll only be concerned about this if we suddenly find out there have been three or more of them out there, and we only knew about the two.

Otherwise, like other posters have mentioned, the russian fleet is for the most part, older vessels, that have been hastily patched up and pressed back into service since they have come into a bit of $$ by selling arms to the Iranians, et. al.

My real concern comes when the russians start selling entire submarines, complete with (nuclear)weapons systems to Iran, or Syria. It's not such a stretch. The russians already have, and have recently been investing lots 'o cash into a naval base in Syria already.

The Russians just sold a nuclear submarine with missile holes to India. The Indians have to put there own missiles in those holes.

[rlchurch]

Originally Posted by mwruckman

The Russians just sold a nuclear submarine with missile holes to India. The Indians have to put there own missiles in those holes.

This is kind of a "hello, welcome to planet earth" for the earlier poster. The Iranians bought several Russian submarines 15-20 years ago. As I recall they are diesel powered, which is viable in the confined Persian Gulf area.