Submarines

The Navy has reassigned the commander of the nuclear-powered submarine San Francisco that struck an undersea mass of rock Jan. 8 in the western Pacific Ocean, officials said. One sailor died and 23 were injured. Cmdr. Kevin Mooney was reassigned to a unit in Guam pending the completion of an investigation into the crash, a statement from the U.S. 7th Fleet said. Vice Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the fleet's commander, ordered Mooney's removal from command.

A Japanese navy aircraft chased an unidentified submarine out of the area near its southern islands, about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo. Several destroyers were also headed for the area, Kyodo news agency said. Some media reports suggested the submarine may have been Chinese. Public broadcaster NHK quoted an official at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo as saying he did not know whether Chinese military vessels had entered Japanese waters.

South Korea has agreed in principle to buy three more submarines from West Germany in the latter half of the 1990s, for a total of six, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Tuesday. Seoul is to take delivery of three West German 209-class submarines in 1991 at $200 million each under a 1987 agreement. It has now decided to order three more at $165 million each, the spokesman told reporters.

Texas A&M University researchers have found the wreckage of a fleet of Japanese submarines that prowled for U.S. ships during World War II. The Navy used explosives to sink the 24 subs in 1946 to prevent the Soviets from taking advantage of their technology. The location of the wreckage was classified for nearly six decades. Using now-declassified Navy documents and underwater technology, an oceanography professor and graduate found the submarines 60 miles off the coast of Nagasaki.

The Russian government has informed the Bush Administration that it intends to proceed with a disputed $750-million sale of submarines to Iran, the State Department said Friday. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the United States continues to oppose the deal, which would make Iran the only Persian Gulf state with submarines in its arsenal. Last week at the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V.

The Navy cut two nuclear submarines from its proposed purchases for 2005-09, a decision that will cost General Dynamics Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. about $3 billion, government officials familiar with the matter said. The Navy will buy one Virginia class sub in 2007 and one in 2008 under the revised plan, half the number previously projected, said the officials, who asked not to be named. Shares of Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics fell $1.10 to $79.

Police arrested 82 protesters in Groton, Conn., for trying to prevent Electric Boat shipyard employees from going to work building submarines that will carry a new generation of nuclear missile. "The Trident II, when it's deployed, will bring the world closer to nuclear war than it was 25 years ago," said protest spokesman Bill Boston, a member of the New Haven-based Coalition to Stop Trident.

An explosion and fire struck the diesel submarine Bonefish off Florida on Sunday, injuring 18, three seriously, and leaving 3 missing, the Navy said. It was not immediately known whether the blaze had been extinguished. The Bonefish, one of the last diesel submarines in service in the Navy, surfaced 160 miles east of Cape Canaveral, Fla., where it was on a routine exercise, said Cmdr. Fred Leeder, spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet.

Workers using a remote-controlled saw began cutting through the sunken Kursk's mangled bow but had to stop when a cable broke, delaying a crucial stage in the operation to raise the Russian submarine. The saw sliced 5 feet into the steel hull before a cable guiding its chain of teeth ran across a rock and broke, officials said. Divers and technicians using remote-controlled submersible vehicles were working to fix the problem, but it was not clear how long the repair might take.

Former President Carter was filled with emotion as the most advanced nuclear submarine in the Navy was named after him at a Groton shipyard. "This is a very wonderful day for me, to see my wife break the Champagne on undoubtedly the finest and most formidable ship in the world," said Carter, a U.S. Naval Academy alumnus.