Submarines

The remains of a Japanese mini-submarine that participated in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor have been discovered, researchers are to report today, offering strong evidence that the sub fired its torpedoes at Battleship Row. That could settle a long-standing argument among historians. Five mini-subs were to participate in the strike, but four were scuttled, destroyed or run aground without being a factor in the attack. The fate of the fifth has remained a mystery.

TEL AVIV - With the acquisition this month of a sixth German-made submarine, Israel is seeking to position itself as the region's undisputed naval powerhouse. From spying on enemies to intercepting illegal arms shipments to blockading the Gaza Strip, Israel's naval capabilities are playing a more prominent role in the nation's security. The latest advanced German sub, with a price tag of more than $500 million, is Israel's most expensive piece of military equipment. The subs - which are believed to be fitted with nuclear weapons - also provide Israel with a second-strike capability designed to discourage surprise enemy offensives.

Reporting from Washington - Achieving complete autonomy in robotic submarines is crucial to the Navy's plans to use the technology for the future. This was the message of several speakers at the Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's robotic conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel who said that submarine drones could be useful in a variety of roles in science and national security. Unlike today's aerial drones, which are remotely controlled using GPS signals and data link, robotic submarines can't receive satellite commands as it scours the ocean floor.

Achieving complete autonomy in future robotic submarines is crucial to the Navy's plans to use drone technology. This was the message of several speakers at the Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's robotic conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel who said that submarine drones could be useful in a variety of roles in science and national security. Unlike aerial drones, which are remotely controlled using GPS signals and data links, robotic submarines would not be able to receive satellite commands as they scour the ocean floor.

The Navy plans to allow women to serve for the first time on submarines, the only class of ship from which they are barred, military and congressional officials said Tuesday. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates notified Congress on Monday that the Navy intended to change its policy. Congress has 30 working days to object. Unless the House or Senate moves to block the shift, the policy could go into effect as soon as mid-April. Allowing women to serve as regular crew members would shatter a gender barrier that has stood since the U.S. submarine force was created in 1900.

Congratulations on your excellent profile of U.S. submariners ("Red Hunt," April 12, by David DeVoss). But may I suggest that you may have inadvertently painted with too broad a brush when recounting the U.S. Navy's losses of one in five submarines in World War II and ascribing them to the fact that skippers had to come to the surface to make their sightings? The total is about right--52 U.S. subs lost--but that count includes losses of every type from 1941-45, ranging from training accidents and scuttling following damage to losses by groundings and by collisions in U.S. waters.

The nuclear-powered attack submarine Los Angeles had been in the fleet for a dozen years, mostly patrolling the Pacific to keep a close watch on Russian subs, when Caleb Schrum was born. On Saturday, Schrum, now 21 and a Navy petty officer second class, gently lowered the American flag on the aft of the Los Angeles at the conclusion of a tradition-rich ceremony in San Pedro in which the submarine was decommissioned from the active fleet. The vessel that entered service in 1976 as the Navy's most innovative underwater warship is headed for retirement as its oldest submarine.

China's first domestically designed and built nuclear submarine successfully completed its maiden voyage and has gone into active service, the official People's Daily newspaper said Thursday. The Chinese navy has three other nuclear submarines in active service.

Canada said it was convinced that a submarine bought from Britain was seaworthy at the start of a disastrous voyage during which a fire injured nine crewmen, one fatally, and left the vessel adrift in the Atlantic. The Chicoutimi was towed to Scotland's Faslane naval base Sunday, five days after the blaze. The sub is one of four that Canada bought from Britain in 1998 but that needed major repairs before they could safely put to sea.

A British nuclear submarine ran aground off Scotland's Isle of Skye, suffering considerable damage to its sonar and a ballast tank, a navy spokeswoman said. The Trafalgar, which will need several months of repairs, limped into the Clyde naval base Thursday, one day after hitting rocks during a two-week training exercise with other British and NATO vessels. The submarine was not carrying nuclear weapons and its reactor suffered no damage.

Reporting from Washington - Achieving complete autonomy in robotic submarines is crucial to the Navy's plans to use the technology for the future. This was the message of several speakers at the Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's robotic conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel who said that submarine drones could be useful in a variety of roles in science and national security. Unlike today's aerial drones, which are remotely controlled using GPS signals and data link, robotic submarines can't receive satellite commands as it scours the ocean floor.

It was just after sunrise on Dec. 23, 1941, when the tanker Montebello was hit by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine just off the Central California coast, taking 3 million gallons of crude oil with it as it sank. All 38 crewmen aboard the Union Oil Co. of California vessel survived and rowed their way ashore. But since the World War II attack just weeks after Pearl Harbor, the tanker has rested 900 feet below the ocean surface off the coast of Cambria. In recent years, worries have mounted that if crude began to leak from the 440-foot vessel it could foul the state's waters and shoreline, creating an environmental catastrophe.

Fast Five Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.98 The "Fast and the Furious" films have always been guilty pleasures at best, but "Fast Five" is guiltier and more pleasurable than most, reinventing the series as an international heist thriller with super-fast sports cars. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reprise their roles as speed freaks willing to bend or break the law if necessary. In "Fast Five," the heroes travel to Rio and assemble a team to swipe $100 million from a sinister crime lord.

An 18-foot, bright-yellow submarine drone is being tested off the coast of Santa Catalina Island for possible use by the U.S. military to stalk enemy waters, patrol local harbors for national security threats and scour ocean floors to detect environmental hazards. Although robotic aircraft already play a critical role in modern warfare, taking out insurgents with missile strikes in the skies above Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, the same robotic revolution hasn't taken place in the world's oceans.

'Submarine' MPAA rating: R for language and some sexual content Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes Playing: Arclight, Hollywood; Landmark, West Los Angeles

Writer-director Richard Ayoade has the knack. A fresh and inventive cinematic voice, he's taken a subject that's been beaten half to death and brought it miraculously to life in his smart and funny debut feature, "Submarine. " Based on a novel by Joe Dunthorne, "Submarine" is not exactly the first film willing to explore the coming of age of a teenage boy. But by grafting delightful cinematic wit and style and a fondness for the energy of the French New Wave onto the tale of a 15-year-old taking on life in a town in Wales, Ayoade makes us feel like it's never been told before.

U.N. officials returned the remains of nine North Korean submarine crewmen to their homeland 11 days after their craft was caught in a South Korean fishing net. U.N. honor guards handed over nine black wooden coffins to North Korean border guards in a 30-minute ceremony in Panmunjom, the truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. Five North Korean military officers briefly crossed the border to inspect each coffin.

The battered Kursk submarine reached a Russian shipyard where officials will check its twin nuclear reactors, remove the bodies of the crew members and begin dismantling its deadly missiles. The Kursk was hauled by a huge barge to a dock at the Roslyakovo ship repair plant near Murmansk. It will take at least three days to pull the Kursk into the dock with the help of huge pontoons, then five more days to remove the barge and the pontoons and dry out the dock, said Capt. Vladimir M.

If the new movie "Submarine" carries the pertly eccentric, aesthetic tinge of a French New Wave coming-of-age film like "The 400 Blows," there are two reasons: Its screenwriter-director Richard Ayoade is a cinephile who knows those classics well, and, he stressed, so does his young protagonist. "The idea was that the character would have that grammar in order to see himself, that he knows what a coming-of-age film is," said Ayoade of the subjectively strong cinematic viewpoint he gives 15-year-old Welsh lad Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts)

One of them owns a twin-engine airplane and a helicopter. The other? A fleet of spaceships. Richard Branson, the billionaire adventurer, and Newport Beach real estate investor Chris Welsh unveiled a one-person submarine Tuesday that they said will be used to explore the deepest reaches of the world's oceans. The pair said they will begin later this year with the Mariana Trench, a 36,000-foot-deep valley that has not been visited by mankind since 1960, when a bulky, two-man submarine operated by the U.S. Navy made the voyage.