Submersible Armageddon

Peeking the Patterns of the AIS and Escort activity for some period of time has taught me a few tricks.

Key Material, or Orders. Command shuttle from Keyport to Port Angeles Monday MLK Day Jan 15 2024

Next day, Escorts both move into Hood Canal – one of them extinguishing AIS signals while still in the Straits. The other, at the Delta Pier.

Friday January 19th 2024 the two escorts emerge with a Boomer, from Hood Canal at 208P-251P and at Skunk Bay by 3:22P

DEEPC16 keeps watch on the waters while the transit is happening, in case anyone would watch or interfere with the emerging platform. The WSP used to do this in Hood Canal, but alas – their imagery sharing is broken down and their Vendor is Kaput.

January 24 Submarine INTO Hood Canal

906AM a Tug is moving out of Hood Canal for an intercept of someone coming into it.

914A the shadows of twinned ships where no AIS says a ship should be.

The last thing a white lady does before she calls the cops is say she’s “not there to argue.”

Ever was it always their dream; Robot is just another word for Slave. Made of steel or made of meat, whatever is the difference – what they eat, what they bleat, what they deny and to whom they tithe.

Escorts depart the next day, early enough to escape notice – they hoped. Oops. Sorry.

January 29 2024 SUBMARINE INTO HOOD CANAL

“I’m not here to argue” is always the last thing they say before the comments close and the post gets delisted or deleted.

Oily Barge return, mid span Hood Canal Bridge Jan 30 2024 (No warning first). The Oily Barge is a trip saver for the little escort boats that need fuel in Hood Canal. They drag a barge of fuel oil from Manchester whenever they need to top up.

Jan 2024 Dry Dock 5 Connecticut and Dry Dock 4 SSBN 735 Pennsylvania

July 2023 One Boomer in dry dock 2

January 31 2024 Submarine IN at Hood Canal

SUBMARINE TRANSIT escorted into Hood Canal Jan 31 2024

Keyport to Hood Canal – Orders via Battle Point probably

Sunday Feb 11 2024 AM Touch N Go, Submarine not on AIS for the ID.

February 20, 2024 Submarine Out

Navy Escort Craft are not USCG unit, though both participate in these

February 29, 2024 Cmdr. Ryan A. Stewart relieved Cmdr. Jason N. Glab as CO of the Henry M. Jackson (Gold) during a change-of-command ceremony at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor chapel

March 8, 2024 Cmdr. Martin E. Roshmann relieved Cmdr. Travis C. Wood as CO of the Maine (Gold) during a change-of-command ceremony at the Naval Undersea Museum.

Saturday, March 9 2024 Submarine out of Hood Canal: No WSP Overwatch

Hood Canal has a ship that carries a highway across it, and the crew of that ship must coordinate with the Navy from time to time, and run a Social Media suite on the Hellsite, on Text to phone, on Email to Device, etc. On these social suites, the various announcements of closure and plans for closure are made, relative to the vehicle traffic across the ship – which must open the Highway to allow Navy Escorts and Submersibles to pass through the gap thus restored. One can browse a website for those announcements or subscribe to them, if one is willing to understand that they will purge the list and you must resubscribe often.

From time to time the US Navy will request of the State Patrol that they center their aircraft on an orbit above the planned transit of Submersible Amageddon – the Boomers, the missile carrying nuclear powered steel tubes that should stand ready to incinerate some corner of the Revolution, lest we forget the Cold War and its successor emergencies unto this present emergent sea.

ADS-B is a commonly used radio system in the Air to avoid space and time conflicts between flying platforms in the Skies above the Sound. This can often be used to track whether the State Patrol’s platforms are snaking coils above the Coyle or looping snooping over the Peninsula Kitsap.

AIS is a commonly used radio system at Sea to avoid space and time conflicts between vessels plying the restricted waters of the often foggy Sound, and its Straits. This can often be used to surmise when Tugs, Escorts, and Security vessels are in motion at key points in their journey, when fate is not relied upon for navigation and sound is not enough to peer through the fog. Submersible Boomers hardly ever touch the stuff, perhaps they cannot – I never recall seeing it happen. But special submersibles that often go without escort or with extremely limited numbers of escorts often use it to avoid being hit in the channel by larger, faster traffic.

Arrowhead and Eagleview are former Horizon Offshore Vessels which service and often escort the Submersibles from Hood Canal to an area North and West of Port Angeles in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. They are USNS Vessels with arms and mounts, as well as laser position keeping equipment that will maintain an exact distance to its escorted vessel for safety and close interception of inbound missiles or small craft.

In addition to the main package of three vessels, nearly every transit will also feature three to five small craft and a mother ship to keep them safe – or two of those, if the number of smaller boats is greater than one mothership can handle at once. Small craft will sometimes deploy by trailer ahead of a larger vessel such as a Carrier transiting out of Bremerton.

Between the various sources of clues about when a transit is happening and the tendency of public photography to emerge in the fullness of time, it is possible to put together a public sourced list of when the limited number of submersible vessels has transited.