The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 25th that the sound of the explosion of the Titanic tourist submersible that went missing in the deep North Atlantic Ocean is highly likely to be a top-secret underwater surveillance system built by the US during the Cold War.
These systems, which were developed during the Cold War amid fears that Soviet submarines might launch nuclear weapons from the sea, are re-emphasizing their importance today as the conflict with China escalates. According to the WSJ, during World War II, the United States developed a long-range sonar system to detect German submarines and U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean.
Since then, the United States has begun efforts to build an acoustic surveillance system (SOSUS), such as attaching hydrophones to the seabed to detect Soviet nuclear submarines in the early Cold War era. Although SOSUS first became known by its name after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the location and capabilities of the subsea listeners remain top secret.
This system is said to have captured the sound presumably caused by an implosion (a phenomenon in which a structure rapidly collapses inward due to external pressure and is destroyed) after diving to see the wreckage of the passenger ship Titanic on the 18th. Capturing the sound at the time helped authorities narrow down the search for the missing sub, the WSJ reported.
This is not the first time that SOSUS has been used to locate wreckage of wrecked vessels. The sinking of the USS Thresher, a nuclear-powered submarine in which all 129 people died during a test flight in 1963, is one such case. However, whether SOSUS was used is expected to be officially confirmed only after the secrecy is lifted in the distant future.
Meanwhile, while US and Canadian authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the Titan accident, the US Navy said it plans not to use large-scale lifting equipment. The ‘Flyaway deep sea salvage system’ can lift a Titan-sized hull, but the US Navy’s position is that it can only be used when there are large pieces of debris that require the equipment to be mobilized.
