Question by General Patton: On what conditions can United States sink a russian nuclear submarine if it gets too close to the coastline?
A few years ago a big story emerged about a russian nuclear powered submarine with SLBM capabilities which went very close to the coastline of USA. Now the russians could have been attempting to do a surprise attack on United States with nuclear weapons via submarines… on what conditions can United States react and sink the russian submarine?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Pubs let Fox think fer dem
12 miles
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4rgum3nt says
Under The Convention on the Law of the Sea: Part II, Section 3 "All Ships have the right to Innocent Passage through territorial sea."
Territorial Sea is generally understood to mean 12 nautical miles (NM) from the coast, though about 30 nations have different notions of this ranging from 3NM to 200NM (The USA considers 12NM though).
Article 20 does state that Submarines must navigate on the surface when passing through Territorial Sea, but as long as the submarine in question was outside of this zone it is free to move submerged.
The rules about the conditions when the United States Navy(USN) could had engaged to sink the submarine are defined by the Department of Defence and constantly change (and vary in different regions of the world etc.)
Like Soldiers, Crew Members of USN vessels are given Orders For Opening Fire (OFOF). They usually have rules that a Vessel can only be fired upon if it is posing a direct threat to a USN asset (training weapons, illuminating with Targeting Radar etc.)
It is interesting to note, the boat that bombed the USS Cole (12 Oct 2000) was not considered by the OFOF rules to be posing a threat warranting opening fire (or even pointing weapons at the boat).
Surprise Attack is when you are not prepared, like the USS Cole was (or even the 911 Hijacking) – the reason it is a Surprise is because there are little or no plans to prevent it.
Had that Russian Submarine launched Nuclear Weapons onto America from close proximity (just outside of Territorial Waters), America quite possibly could had been caught in a situation where a response could take hours or even days before reprisal/retaliation.
Questioner says
Only if its within 200 or so miles and the sub is not responding to hails or anything like that. Then it is considered an invasion or something like that on sovereign territory.
usamedic420 says
The limit is 10 miles international limit however, for Boomers nuclear subs the limit is 200 miles anything closer and your picking a fight.