p2pnet news | Off Topic:- Remember when that Chinese nuclear submarine showed up online after it was pinpointed in a Google Earth satellite picture?

“The new submarine was photographed by the commercial Quickbird satellite in late 2006 and the image is freely available on the Google Earth web site,” revealed weapons analyst Hans Kristensen on the Strategic Security Blog.

It’s happened again. Only this time the sub is Russian, not Chinese. And satellite pics had nothing to do with it.

And this time the leak was far worse.

On September 6, the official site of the city of Sarov reported a visit by the commander of the submarine Sarov, Captain 1st Rank Sergey Kroshkin, says Kommersant, going on:

In the text, it stated that the Sarov was still in the stocks at the Severodvinsk but ‘the chief commander of the Navy has set the task of finishing work by the end of the year.’ The number of the submarine project was given: 20120 and its technical and tactical characteristics as well. those data indicate that the new submarine is very similar to the Project 877 Paltus (Halibut) diesel submarine, but its water displacement is greater (3950 vs. 3050 tons).

Five days later, the data had been removed, but too late. Local media had already picked up on the story, which is now making its way around the world via the net.

Russian Navy press service representative Alexander Smirnov told Kommersant he knew nothing about the Project 20120 so, “Kommersant contacted the Zvezdochka shipbuilding enterprise and Northern Machine Building Enterprise (Sevmash) in Severodvinsk for commentary about the submarine,” says the story, adding:

“A Zvezdochka spokesman stated that no new submarines are being built there. Sevmash declined to answer Kommersant’s questions. The Rubin central design bureau, a leading developer of submarines, also declined to confirm or deny its involvement with the Project 20120.”

The photo on the right is one of several posted by Kommersant. Click here to see more.

Slashdot it!

Also See:
Chinese nuclear submarine – Google Earth spots Chinese sub, July 10, 2007
Strategic Security Blog – New Chinese Ballistic Missile Submarine Spotted, July 5, 2007
Kommersant – Submarine: Military Secret Shows Up on the Internet, September 12, 2007

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 9:53 am and is filed under Off Topic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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