- 4 months ago
Submarines are stealthy weapons of deterrence, carrying nuclear missiles capable of devastating destruction.
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00:00I am acutely aware, if I ever have to launch these missiles, devastation, on an unimaginable scale, will occur.
00:16Amand metal stations, missile for WSRT, spin up all missiles.
00:20Any nation seeing ballistic missiles coming in, I reckon, is bound to save fire back.
00:25And that is the end of the world. The end of the world.
00:30That is the whole idea of this machine, you know.
00:43Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the fear to attack.
00:50One away. One away. One away!
01:00Submarines have always been shrouded in secrecy.
01:13Their movements mysterious. Their capabilities undisclosed. Unseen. Unheard. Undiscussed.
01:26The principal weapon of a submarine is stealth. Nobody can hear it, hopefully. Nobody can see it, certainly. Stealth. Coming up and surprising your enemy before he has any idea you're there.
01:51This is the USS Georgia, an Ohio-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine.
02:06It is submarines like this which defined the balance between the superpowers throughout the Cold War.
02:13That era may be over, but their purpose has not changed.
02:17The Georgia contains more explosive power than has ever been unleashed in all of history.
02:23More than a thousand Hiroshima's in one steel hull. They call her a boomer.
02:32She is also the longest submarine in the world.
02:36But if the ocean were transparent, this is what you would see.
02:41Like her sister ship Georgia, the Alaska is more than four stories high, almost two football fields in length.
03:07And when she's submerged, she displaces more than 18,000 tons of water.
03:22The hull is built on an enormous scale, but for a very good reason.
03:29It's designed to hold 24 Triton ballistic missiles, each one 40 feet long and capable of carrying up to 14 independently targeted nuclear warheads.
03:42The missile deck. The crew call it Sherwood Forest.
03:47Everything on the submarine is designed to maintain the well-being and readiness of the missiles inside these tubes.
03:56They are monitored around the clock.
03:58Fortunately, the missiles are comfortable in conditions which also agree with their guardians.
04:04Petty Officer 2nd Class James McCune is doing his daily run around Sherwood Forest.
04:19It's his way of keeping fit during a three-month patrol while they are constantly submerged.
04:26Nineteen times around the tubes is one mile.
04:31Four hundred and thirty-five times, a marathon.
04:43Keeping these missiles in a state of constant readiness is the ultimate responsibility of one man.
04:49At 49, Captain Richard Braz is one of the U.S. Navy's most experienced submarine commanders.
04:58I always tell my crew, guys, if I don't chew on these, I'll be chewing on you.
05:03So they don't complain too much.
05:05I have reformed the modern Navy.
05:07I don't smoke below decks.
05:09I only smoke outside.
05:11And that's pretty infrequent in a submarine.
05:14Once every hundred days.
05:16The purpose of a boomer is to provide strategic deterrence for the United States.
05:25My mission is actually quite simple.
05:28Be ready to launch these missiles when directed with little or no probability of anybody's interfering with that action.
05:40We do that by remaining undetected, at sea, covert, unlocated by anybody.
05:49The whereabouts of Captain Braz and the Georgia may be unknown.
05:53But they're certainly not alone out there.
05:55There's a similar submarine hiding in the ocean.
05:58And it's even bigger.
06:01Captain Andrei Zhiguliov drives the biggest submarine in the world.
06:20Welcome to the Typhoon, pride of the Russian fleet.
06:24An awesome submarine.
06:27She has two of just about everything.
06:29Twin hulls, two nuclear reactors, two propellers, and 20 ballistic missiles, which can also hit their targets from anywhere in the world.
06:39Her name is still a state secret, even though the two navies are opening up to each other for the first time in 50 years.
06:47Look at this.
06:50It's a big devil.
06:51It's twice the breadth almost, 75 feet across, compared to 42 for Trident.
06:57I exclaimed in rather profane language about what type of a mountain it was.
07:03This was interpreted to the Russians who roared laughing.
07:08That's the captain, 39 years old.
07:11He had been skipper of this ship for three years and expected two more years.
07:16The son of an admiral.
07:18And all he had ever been in, in his whole time in the Navy, is nuclear missile, as he called them, submarines.
07:29The decision to employ ballistic missiles is taken at the highest level by the country's president and government.
07:36I am prepared to carry out any order given by my government.
07:41In my mind, the Russians, in spite, decided to build the biggest damn submarine in the world.
07:47We had one that was so big, they'd go bigger.
07:50Despite arms reduction, the Americans still have 18 Ohio's and the Russians, six typhoons.
07:59But both have many other ballistic missile submarines.
08:03The figures are chilling.
08:05They call it mutually assured destruction.
08:28It is the basis of deterrence.
08:31I assure you that if the president and the national command authority direct me to launch these missiles, they're going to fly.
08:40Once the Georgia submerges and goes on patrol, she will not surface again for up to three months.
09:00She will spend her time avoiding any contact, her precise whereabouts unknown, even to United States forces.
09:09As deep as a thousand feet, the submarine is deliberately cut off from the world.
09:22Communication is mostly one way.
09:25The submarine awaits orders from the national command authority, but seldom responds for fear of betraying her position.
09:33Action message.
09:34The crew remains on constant alert, ready to launch the missiles within minutes of receiving an order.
09:41Conradio, emergency action message is an authenticator test. Recommend alert one.
09:47Radio Conradio.
09:49Once an emergency action message is received, it is passed to two officers who must decode it together.
10:03Alpha. Alpha. Alpha. Alpha.
10:06Alpha.
10:07To do so, they must get sealed codes from a safe within a safe.
10:12Only a few officers know the combination of each safe.
10:16No one knows both numbers, which are never committed to paper.
10:21Authentication required.
10:26Okay. We need to get the authenticator out of the safe.
10:33You'll have to leave. You're not authorized to be in here while the safes are open.
10:37No one, not even the captain, is allowed to be in this room alone. Ever.
10:43Captain, we have a properly formatted emergency action message.
10:47Request mission to authenticate, sir.
10:48I concur, sir.
10:50Authenticate.
10:51Authenticate, aye, sir.
10:53Authentication is...
10:54Four officers must now agree if the codes match those on the message.
10:58If so, they know a launch has been ordered.
11:00Delta.
11:01Charlie.
11:02Bravo.
11:03Alpha.
11:04Sir, the message authenticates.
11:05I concur, captain.
11:06The message is authentic.
11:07I concur, captain.
11:08Off the deck.
11:09Man battle stations missile for WSRT. Spin up all missiles.
11:15Man battle stations missile for WSRT. Spin up all missiles.
11:17Man battle stations missile for WSRT. Spin up all missiles.
11:19The captain places his launch key, also kept in the safe, around his neck.
11:24All right.
11:25Watch them .
11:26Watch them .
11:27Watch them .
11:28General alarm.
11:29Watch them .
11:30General alarm, aye, sir.
11:33Rock.
11:34Rock, two.
11:47Man battle stations missile, WSRT.
11:50We're in the SRT.
12:02Weapons con, the following missiles will be released
12:05one through 24.
12:06Weapons con, following missiles will be released
12:08one through 24, I see.
12:09Weapons con, the following missiles will be released
12:12one through 24.
12:20Captain issues launch orders, which are repeated exactly by the executive officer.
12:29The weapons officer must recognize both voices before continuing the procedure.
12:34Weapons gone.
12:35Simulate pressurizing release tubes to ordered launch deck.
12:38Simulate pressurizing release tubes to ordered launch deck.
12:42Weapons gone.
12:43Simulate pressurizing release tubes to ordered launch deck.
12:48Simulate pressurizing 1 through 6, 13, 15 through 18, order launch deck.
12:57Inside this safe is the nuclear weapons trigger, the final link in the launch circuit.
13:02Navigation fact, kill transmission check, complete a satisfactory weapons con I.
13:07Kill transmission check, complete a satisfactory weapon stand by.
13:12Each step of the procedure is dictated strictly according to the launch manual.
13:17The captain inserts his key, giving the final signal to launch.
13:30Weapons con, you have permission to fire.
13:32Weapons con, you have permission to fire, aye, sir.
13:34Weapons con, you have permission to fire.
13:36When we're on patrol and we get messages in of an alert one, it's something that happens
13:40all the time.
13:41We get them all the time.
13:42You never know.
13:43Is this the real one?
13:44Is this just a training one?
13:47Fortunately, we've had all training.
13:49You know, we never know when the real one's going to come.
13:52But we're out here, we're pretty isolated.
13:54Supervisor, initiate countdown.
13:56Initiate countdown, aye.
13:58We go through the motions because history has shown that you fight the way you practice.
14:09So if the world situation were to change, you'd see a big change in the attitude of the crew,
14:13but we'd still do what we were trained to do.
14:15If it was for real, it'd be probably a lot quieter, a lot more tense.
14:20It'd go the same way, though.
14:22Prepare one.
14:23Prepare one.
14:24Prepare one.
14:25No one wants to destroy a whole civilization or the whole planet because I think we all
14:31know that that's what it would come to if we launched all our weapons.
14:34But in order for deterrence to work, we have to be willing to do that if we're called upon
14:39by our government to do so.
14:41And I believe most, I believe all of us are willing to do that.
14:46Get off two.
14:48Get off here.
14:51We've been trained, so we do our job like we're supposed to and hope our government
14:55knows what they're doing.
15:00Ten.
15:06One away.
15:08One away.
15:09If the firing trigger has been closed and the missile has started a launch, I cannot stop
15:15it, and it cannot be stopped en route to the target.
15:18Those missiles will arrive and they will detonate.
15:21Ten.
15:22Ten.
15:23Ten.
15:24Ten.
15:25Ten.
15:26Ten.
15:27Ten.
15:28Ten.
15:29Ten.
15:30Ten.
15:31Ten.
15:32Ten.
15:33Ten.
15:34Ten.
15:35Ten.
15:36Ten.
15:37Ten.
15:38Ten.
15:39Ten.
15:40Ten.
15:41Ten.
15:42Ten.
15:43Ten.
15:44Ten.
15:45Ten.
15:46Ten.
15:47Ten.
15:48Ten.
15:49Ten.
15:50Ten.
15:51Ten.
15:52Ten.
15:53Ten.
15:54Ten.
15:55Ten.
15:56Ten.
15:57Ten.
15:58Ten.
15:59Ten.
16:00Ten.
16:01Even if the individual who was having a bad day was the captain,
16:06I cannot get to a missile alone.
16:09I cannot even get to my launch key alone.
16:14My superiors, my executive officer, my weapons officer,
16:21my whole crew would know that something is wrong.
16:25They all have to participate in the sequence to launch.
16:28I can't do it alone.
16:32Today, the submarine is linked with nuclear deterrence.
16:36But long before nuclear weapons, the submarine itself was a deterrent.
16:41Like a shark, you don't have to see it to believe it might be there.
16:45This doesn't look much like a submarine,
16:48but in fact, well over two centuries ago,
16:52it was able to make the very first submarine attack.
16:55It was called the turtle and was used to strike at the British fleet
16:59during the War of Independence.
17:01It was primitive and dangerous, but its inventor was on the right track.
17:06There was a valve here for flooding the main ballast tank under us with water
17:11and diving the boat.
17:12There was a pump here for pumping the ballast tank out again and letting it come up.
17:18The propulsion was by the pilot, a one-man boat, of course.
17:23The pilot sat and pedaled these pedals here, which in turn rotated the propeller.
17:28Quaint as it might appear, the turtle was designed to sink a ship.
17:35And for that, it had an extraordinary weapon system connected to this pointed screw or auger.
17:40Now, you see a sort of pointed thing at the top, like a screw.
17:44And the idea was to get under the ship he was attacking and drive home this auger.
17:50He had a lot of work to do.
17:52Into the wooden hull above, because of course they were wooden ships in those days.
17:55And to that auger was attached a delayed-action mine.
17:58Although the attempt failed, a potentially lethal threat was born.
18:09It was the first idea of submarine deterrence.
18:13That is, that a very small, underwater, covert threat
18:18could scare the pants off a very much more powerful fleet.
18:23The idea of traveling underwater has always been associated with deviousness
18:28and stealth.
18:30Even Leonardo da Vinci is said to have refused to commit plans
18:33for a submersible craft of paper because of the evil nature of men
18:38who practice assassination at the bottom of the sea.
18:41Small wonder that early pioneers had to combat the belief
18:44that undersea warfare was immoral and reprehensible.
18:48Way back in 1898, John Philip Holland, the father of all modern submarines,
18:53was attacked by Dame Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross,
18:58when she looked all around his little submarine.
19:00And she said, Mr. Holland, you've created the most dreadful weapon of war,
19:04and went on to say how ashamed he should be of himself.
19:07And he said, Madam, on the contrary,
19:09I have created the device whereby war may be prevented.
19:14Today he would have said deterred.
19:17With idealistic names like protector and peacemaker,
19:21inventors tried to improve the submarine's image.
19:24But in two world wars,
19:26it was to prove a far more effective assassin than peacemaker.
19:33Propulsion was no longer by pedals, pumps, or in one case, rubber bands.
19:38As Jules Verne had predicted with his mythical Nautilus,
19:41electricity was the key.
19:43It was stored in batteries for use when submerged.
19:45But the early engines which generated it were clumsy and dangerous.
19:50What was to transform the submarine into such a potent hunter-killer
19:54was the reliability of the diesel engine.
19:58We're in the engine room with these two gigantic diesels.
20:02Here are the starting controls and speed controls.
20:06And you can only run these diesels on the surface or snorkeling
20:10because they use a lot of air.
20:12And where you and I are standing now,
20:14we'd be in a howling gale
20:16if we were running these gigantic rock crushers, as they're called.
20:19You can see why.
20:20They look pretty crude, but they're rugged.
20:23And they can be mended at sea.
20:24We have to do our own repairs.
20:25There's no garage to stop in if you're 5,000 miles from home.
20:30And you have to be very quick on shutting these engines down
20:33if and when you dive, you've got perhaps a couple of seconds no more
20:37to shut these valves, otherwise water comes back in.
20:40And that's very bad news to the engines themselves.
20:43Very noisy engines.
20:45They make me deaf anyway.
20:46I can't hear a thing above 1,000 hertz.
20:50But when you're dived,
20:52you have to go to main motors supplied by the battery.
20:54That doesn't use any air.
20:55So you go to main motors.
20:57These look very crude controls by comparison
21:00with a modern press-button affair.
21:02They're about there solid.
21:06You know exactly what's going to happen.
21:08And they're not going to jump out under a depth charge attack.
21:19For both world wars,
21:22submarines were no more than submersible torpedo boats.
21:26Let's compare those diesel-electric submarines with whales.
21:29Now, we all know that whales have to come up to breathe
21:32and also to vent their fowl.
21:35Now, a nuclear submarine is not a whale at all.
21:38It's not a mammal.
21:39It's a true shark.
21:40At Groton, Connecticut, a new naval era dawns with the launching of the Nautilus,
21:49one of the largest submarines ever built
21:51and the first atomic-powered craft in history.
21:54It may well initiate a revolution in naval warfare.
21:56Mrs. Eisenhower christens it with a valiant blow.
21:59The nuclear submarine was a technological revolution.
22:04Greater mobility was the perfect weapon in an uncertain world.
22:08Fear and suspicion dominated East and West.
22:11Each side convinced the other was plotting its destruction.
22:14The Nautilus heralds a new era of the Atomic Age.
22:19I'm no communist, and I'll tell you that right now.
22:23I believe a man should own his own house and car and town.
22:28I like this private ownership, and I want to be left alone.
22:32Let the government run its business, and let me run my own.
22:36Fear of the bomb led to hysterical propaganda.
22:40Be ready every day, all the time, to do the right thing if the atomic bomb explodes.
22:46Duck and cover.
22:48That's the first thing to do.
22:50Duck and cover.
22:51First, you duck.
22:53Then, you cover.
22:55He did what we all must learn to do.
22:58You and you and you and you.
23:01You and you and you and you.
23:04Duck and cover.
23:06How far do you have to be from the blast to live through it?
23:10Well, let's take a 20 megaton surface burst.
23:17It was the Atomic Age, and the great symbol of progress was nuclear power.
23:24The U.S. Navy thought it might take 20 years to harness it for propulsion, but one man believed otherwise.
23:31Hyman G. Rickover has become an American legend.
23:38He only ever commanded an ancient minesweeper and never saw combat.
23:42In 1949, when he took charge of naval reactors, nuclear submarines were a futuristic dream.
23:50And yet, by 1960, there were 13 in service and 35 more on the slipways.
23:56A speedster which will command a submerged 50 miles per hour, making it necessary for her crew to wear life belts during her...
24:13The magnificent agility, performance of that submarine, where you could fly in, almost fly in, it's what it was like.
24:22Under aircraft carriers, match their speeds, or operate on the flank of a task force, picking the time and the place for your attack.
24:32You say to the crew, well, we'll wait till after the movie's over.
24:34USS Triton, the world's largest nuclear submarine...
24:40As well as speed and agility, nuclear power gave the submarine unheard-of endurance.
24:47Captain Beach, who skippered the Triton on a course...
24:50The Triton was a brand-new submarine.
24:52She had never been to sea.
24:53This was the Shakedown Cruise, and it was the Shakedown Cruise to end all Shakedown Cruises.
24:58And so, you know, I felt we had really accomplished something.
25:00We'd shown that the nuclear submarine could do anything.
25:02It's Nautilus Day in New York, and the submariners who conquered the Arctic are cheered to the echo in their progress along the city's traditional route of heroes...
25:11Rickover won public and political support for his achievements, but his contempt for bureaucracy led him into constant conflict with the Navy.
25:21Admiral Arleigh Burke probably described the situation best with regard to Admiral Rickover.
25:26He said that the Navy could certainly only afford one anarchist at a time.
25:31Admiral Rickover was a gentleman who took no guidance from any Navy chief, no civilian secretary of the Navy, no secretary of defense, and no president.
25:43But his ruthless pursuit of excellence in what he saw as a mediocre world also left him isolated and loathed.
25:50I think he did it because of his personality, and that was the only way he could get the results that he wanted.
25:55But everybody who knew him hated him.
25:58Everybody was scared to death of him.
26:00And when he laid out an order, you did it, because if you didn't, you got canned.
26:04And I mean it.
26:05He was very tough.
26:07For three decades, Rickover personally interviewed and approved every nuclear officer.
26:12For each one, it was an unforgettable event.
26:16I had talked to many of the young lieutenants who were being interviewed by Rickover,
26:21and so I was perhaps more prepared for the obscenity than most.
26:27It was a day-long interview during which I was thrown out of his office on at least four occasions for insolence or other answers that did not please him.
26:38The trouble with you is you want easy answers, but you don't know the proper questions.
26:43Why didn't you think about it at the time or start something?
26:46Well, unfortunately, the time that you started in nuclear power in 1946, I was being born.
26:51So I admit that I'm coming to the issue late, all right?
26:55Well, you're the rising generation.
26:56Argument with every answer, sarcasm in great quantities, an effort to degrade, to humiliate, to anger.
27:05Only Jesus Christ can do all of them.
27:07I can't.
27:08At the end of the interview, Admiral Rickover said,
27:10Now, what are you going to say when you get back to your office?
27:12And I said, I'm going to say this was the most fascinating experience of my life.
27:16And he said, Now you're being a greasy aide.
27:18Get out of here.
27:21Rickover's influence is still felt in every corner of the U.S. nuclear navy.
27:26Few dispute his engineering and safety standards,
27:29but some believe Rickover's dream was achieved at considerable cost.
27:34Admiral Rickover was the right man in the early years.
27:37I think that the Navy and individuals in the Navy paid a fearsome price in later years,
27:42and there are many broken careers as a result of Admiral Rickover's dictatorial policies.
27:50I have to agree with a lot of those who say they don't like his methods,
27:58but man, you can't quarrel with the results.
28:02Ten years after Rickover's regime ended,
28:05nuclear submarines are still commanded by men he selected.
28:09The Admiral slammed his hand down on the desk and he said,
28:12Answer the question.
28:14And I said, Yes, sir.
28:15I'm ready to go earn my living.
28:17And he said, Get out of here.
28:19Quiet and control.
28:20Four eyes on the Fairwater plates.
28:21Three up.
28:24100 feet, sir.
28:25Here I am, 20 years later,
28:28driving a nuclear-powered ship.
28:29The nuclear submarine became the icon of the Cold War.
28:37Its greater mobility and endurance increased its stealth
28:40because nuclear submarines could hide anywhere.
28:44Previously, inaccessible parts of the world
28:46acquired new strategic significance.
28:49Let's fold up the Mercator projections
28:52and look at the globe from above.
28:55And we'll see a huge, unexplored ocean
29:00right at the top, the Arctic.
29:02Look, it's bordered on the one half of the circumference
29:05by Soviet Russia
29:06and on the other half by Canada and Alaska.
29:10You can hide under the icy for a submarine
29:13and don't forget there's no other kind of vehicle at all
29:15that can get there.
29:17You can pop up through the ice
29:18and you can fire missiles from there to either side.
29:25Early submarine-launched missiles were short-range
29:28and had to be located close to the enemy's coastline.
29:32But today's long-range missiles
29:34can hit their targets from anywhere in the world's oceans.
29:37We're talking areas the size of states,
29:41huge pieces of ocean.
29:44I can go wherever I need to go at will.
29:48Totally random,
29:50continuously ready to launch.
29:53Out of the ten submarine-trident force in Bangor, Washington,
30:19we would have seven of them out on alert at a time.
30:23And on every one of those seven submarines,
30:26I have one missile which would have three of its warheads
30:30saying Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad.
30:35That's for starters, but that's on every one of the seven.
30:38The one in the North Atlantic,
30:40the one in the South Pacific,
30:41the one in the Indian Ocean,
30:42the one in the Gulf of California,
30:45the Great Lakes, wherever we want them.
30:47And in case you think you can do the job of surveillance detection
30:50to trigger destruction of submarines
30:53with IR, infrared, or laser,
30:56it'll be the one under the pole too.
30:58This container holds a Trident missile,
31:13or more accurately,
31:15since the Navy routinely neither confirms nor denies
31:18the presence of nuclear weapons,
31:20it can be assumed it does
31:21because of something happening two miles away.
31:24The Georgia is approaching the explosive handling wharf
31:33where missiles and torpedoes are loaded.
31:37But it's the convoy of heavily armed Marines
31:41that gives the best clue to the truck's load.
31:44When nuclear weapons are on the move,
31:46absolutely nothing is left to chance.
31:49This is the first move in the game.
31:52The players are scattered throughout the oceans of the world.
31:55The game is hide-and-seek,
31:58but it's a deadly version.
32:03When he submerges,
32:05Captain Shgulioff will look for a quiet corner of the ocean
32:08to park his typhoon and hide.
32:11But from what?
32:12No missile can find him
32:14since his whereabouts are unpredictable.
32:16No satellite can see him.
32:18No laser yet invented can detect him.
32:20He is effectively invisible,
32:23except to another submarine.
32:29This is the USS Topeka.
32:32She's a Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine,
32:36a state-of-the-art hunter-killer.
32:38Unlike the hunter-killers of World War II,
32:41her principal targets are not on the surface.
32:44One of her jobs is to seek out enemy submarines
32:47like Captain Shgulioff's typhoon
32:49and in wartime, destroy them.
32:52In the meantime, it's a secret war.
32:55There has indeed been a secret war.
32:58Russians versus the West,
33:00West versus the Russians.
33:02The problem is this.
33:04Submarines can't be seen.
33:06We all know that.
33:07The only way you can detect them
33:09is to listen for them,
33:11to listen for them with huge ears
33:13built into the submarine itself.
33:14Leonardo da Vinci once wrote,
33:19if you place the head of a long tube in the water
33:21and the other extremity to your ear,
33:24you will hear a ship at a great distance from you.
33:30In the Second World War,
33:32submarines were detected
33:33by bouncing sound waves off them.
33:36This is the principle of active sonar,
33:39but with it goes the risk
33:40of revealing your own position.
33:42Today, silent listening is the key.
33:46Passive sonar.
33:53Sophisticated arrays of microphones
33:55collect sound from all directions in the water,
33:58translating it into these visual displays.
34:02Interpreting this information
34:03is the science and the art of the sonar man.
34:07Now, there's many things in the ocean,
34:09and if a submarine is looking for its counterpart,
34:12it's got to pick it out
34:13from every other kind of sound in the ocean.
34:16Now, there's the noise that whales make, burping.
34:19There's a noise that sharks make,
34:20slithering through the sea and flicking their tails.
34:23There's a noise that shrimps make, making love,
34:26snap, crackle and pop, as a matter of fact, it sounds like.
34:28There's a noise of the sea itself, of the seabed.
34:31There's a noise of merchant ships going through.
34:33And then somewhere in that,
34:35you hope to pick out the submarine
34:37that's stealthily making its way past you.
34:39That's the one you want to nail,
34:41because he's your real enemy.
34:43Each grain of green light represents a sound.
34:47The vertical lines indicate the presence
34:49of ships and submarines in the ocean.
34:53A highly trained sonar man can identify details
34:57such as how many propellers a contact has,
35:01how many blades on each propeller,
35:03and how fast it's revolving.
35:06Zero, one bears, zero, four, two.
35:08Contacts making eight four turns on one four-bladed screw.
35:11Well, how do you pick him out?
35:14And the answer is that you've got to fingerprint
35:16each of these separate sounds
35:18and keep them in some kind of library,
35:21just like the fingerprint library that the FBI
35:23or Scotland Yard keeps.
35:25So detailed is this library,
35:28a specific submarine can be identified
35:30by its acoustic signature.
35:33Recordings have been collected
35:34by spying on each other at very close quarters.
35:39During the Cold War,
35:41U.S. and Soviet submarines played
35:43what are called cat-and-mouse games.
35:45An American submarine would be going near a Soviet port
35:49on an intelligence collection mission,
35:51and suddenly they would be spotted by the Soviets,
35:55the Soviets would send out a submarine,
35:57and they would engage in some sort
35:59of a confrontational maneuver
36:00several hundred feet below the sea.
36:03This happened on many occasions,
36:05and there were even some scraping of hulls.
36:08All we're getting is some noise from it.
36:12In this secret war,
36:13a hunter-killer uses sonar to find its targets.
36:17A boomer uses it to avoid the hunter.
36:20Tactically, each must be as quiet as possible.
36:23This submarine is built
36:25with the finest technology available
36:28to make her stay undetected.
36:30Her acoustic signature
36:31is the quietest submarine in the world.
36:35The crew and the machinery inside it
36:38are essentially sound isolated from the ocean.
36:42The very decks we walk on
36:44are in fact sound isolated.
36:46I know that this ship is undetectable
36:49unless I do something, frankly, stupid.
36:56But when leaving port,
36:58any submarine is detectable
37:00by satellite,
37:01by underwater detection systems,
37:04and by hostile submarines lying in wait.
37:06The game of tag starts here.
37:10And to get the edge on your opponent,
37:13you have to find his blind spot.
37:17Only here's.
37:19Not if we stay in his baffles seat, man, Beaumont.
37:21Not if we stay in his baffles.
37:24Come in behind his propeller,
37:25and he's deaf as a post.
37:27It is now second nature
37:30for any submarine commander
37:32to look over his shoulder.
37:34Each side has its own tactics
37:36to check if they're being followed.
37:40Now, the way the saviors chose to do this
37:42was to turn around
37:44and go back at high speed.
37:46Hence the expression, Crazy Ivan,
37:48because if there was somebody behind them,
37:50the first thing the person behind them knew
37:52was that this submarine
37:55was racing back down the line at them.
37:57He turned on us
37:58when we weren't suspecting at one time,
38:00but we didn't come anywhere near colliding.
38:02Brought us a little closer
38:03than we wanted to be.
38:06Possible aspect change on target.
38:09Sonar, Con, I.
38:10Possible target say based on bearing rates.
38:16Con, Sonar, Crazy Ivan!
38:18You're playing a game a lot
38:19when you're out there.
38:19It's a serious game.
38:21He comes at you,
38:22and you're heading at him,
38:23and who's going to turn first?
38:25And these incidents have led
38:27to real casualties and loss of life,
38:29according to reports in the Chicago Tribune.
38:32The Tautag had been trailing
38:34the Soviet missile sub for some hours.
38:36When the Soviet sub
38:38pulled a Crazy Ivan,
38:41came hurtling back
38:42toward the Tautag
38:44at a fairly decent speed,
38:4712 knots or so, we think,
38:49that Tautag, for whatever reason,
38:54didn't get deep enough.
38:57The underside of the Soviet sub
38:59smashed into the Tautag's sail.
39:03The Tautag got knocked on its side.
39:06Crew members who were sleeping
39:07got dumped out of their bunks.
39:09Lockers all opened in the kitchen.
39:12Jars of cherries splattered all over the place.
39:15All of these tools were popping out of lockers.
39:21In the sonar shack,
39:22the operators were listening.
39:25At some point,
39:27picked up the sound
39:28that one Navy veteran
39:30described to us
39:32as being like popping of popcorn.
39:35And our people interpreted that
39:38as the sound of the Soviet submarine
39:41breaking up
39:42as it got into the great depths
39:46in the ocean there.
39:47The Navy will neither confirm
39:49nor deny this report.
39:51And in the tradition
39:52of the silent service,
39:53refuses to discuss such issues.
39:55I, one, first,
39:58wouldn't talk about
39:59any encounters that I've had
40:02that are classified.
40:03And I'd like to shoot anybody who would.
40:07What they doing?
40:09Bring it in!
40:17Witnessing this scene,
40:19you could be forgiven
40:20for imagining that the Cold War
40:22is not officially over.
40:23but the so-called evil empire
40:42has disintegrated.
40:44According to its supporters,
40:46deterrence worked,
40:47and the genie
40:49never left the bottle.
40:50There's an ongoing debate now
40:56about what is the future
40:58for the submarine force.
40:59The Cold War is over.
41:00The Soviet Union is gone.
41:02Weren't they the only enemy?
41:05One of the problems I have
41:06with that logic is
41:08there's still an awful lot
41:09of people out there
41:10who are not,
41:11in any way, shape, or form,
41:14friendly.
41:14The last four patrols
41:17this crew made
41:19with this ship,
41:20the following events occurred.
41:22The United States
41:23invaded Panama.
41:26Iraq invaded Kuwait.
41:30Desert storm occurred.
41:33And then there was
41:34a little thing called
41:35a coup in the Soviet Union.
41:37Now, none of those events
41:39was very well predicted
41:41by the opposition.
41:47Are we clairvoyant?
41:49Are we able to see
41:50into the future,
41:51to next week,
41:52next month,
41:53next year,
41:54the next decade,
41:56on when we're gonna rely
41:59on our having these ships?
42:02Are these warheads
42:13still labeled Moscow,
42:15Leningrad,
42:16and Kiev?
42:17For their part,
42:19the Russians have announced
42:20that they are no longer
42:21targeting U.S. cities.
42:31Request permission
42:32to come aboard, sir.
42:33Yes, sir.
42:36A real pleasure
42:37to be with you here today
42:38on this big ship.
42:41I've heard that the Russians
42:42have said that they're not
42:43targeting our country,
42:44and that's fine.
42:45I believe it.
42:46All you have to do
42:47to target something
42:48is make the decision
42:50in 15 seconds
42:51you can do it.
42:55The capability exists,
42:57and we have to deal
42:58in capabilities,
42:59not intentions.
43:00Dogs in the same litter fight.
43:03You can't change it.
43:05But the collapse
43:06of the superpower balance
43:08does raise questions
43:09about the continued relevance
43:11of nuclear deterrence,
43:13with its crippling cost.
43:15The cost of Trident,
43:16the capital cost,
43:18is a stack
43:19of 10-pound notes,
43:20tidily,
43:21neatly arranged,
43:22pressed down,
43:23reaching 88.38 miles
43:26into the sky.
43:30Some believe
43:31the colossal cost
43:32of the ballistic missile
43:33submarine race
43:34also succeeded
43:35as a financial deterrent,
43:37hastening the economic collapse
43:39of the Soviet Union,
43:41crushing an entire
43:42social structure
43:43under the weight
43:44of its own armor.
43:45We would like to see
43:49this expenditure
43:50redirected towards
43:51the welfare of our people.
43:53We'd like to have peace,
43:54happiness,
43:55goodwill to men,
43:56and to beat our swords
43:57into plowshares,
43:58so to speak.
43:59When the turtle
44:05was peddled out
44:06into New York Harbor,
44:07its inventor
44:08could hardly have imagined
44:09that the principle
44:10he was demonstrating
44:11would one day
44:12have the capacity
44:13to destroy
44:14the entire planet.
44:16But in a fragmenting world,
44:18is there still room
44:19for this ultimate deterrent?
44:21Out in the oceans,
44:23today's submariners
44:24continue to do their job.
44:27I must assure you
44:28that if I ever have
44:29to go up against
44:30another submarine,
44:31I'm going to win.
44:33And I'm going to win
44:34because I have the best ship
44:35and I have the best crew
44:36and I know how
44:37to fight a submarine.
44:39I've been trained at
44:40my whole adult life.
44:41I'm really good at it.
44:47Signing officer,
44:48surf the ship
44:49using high-pressure air.
44:53Surface, surface, surface.
44:58While you've been watching
45:02this program,
45:03somewhere,
45:04hundreds of feet
45:05beneath the ocean,
45:06the crews of the Georgia
45:07and the typhoon
45:08may well have been
45:09rehearsing the launch
45:10of their missiles.
45:11They are out there now,
45:13maybe only a few hundred miles
45:15from where you are,
45:17waiting for the call.
45:18The End
45:31of the Sea
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