Russian Akula Class Sub Stalks US Undetected

Russian Akula-Class Submarine Hunting Submarine (Courtesy of FAS)

For several weeks, a Russian Akula-Class nuclear submarine stalked US Sovereign waters with impunity.

The Akula-class submarine is designed as a submarine-hunter. Their primary missions are to stalk US Navy ballistic missile submarines and destroy them before they can launch in the case of war. The fact that one could patrol, undetected, for weeks along the US Gulf Coast, within striking distance of Jacksonville, FL and King's Bay, GA, both cities that house large US Naval bases. Among the armament routinely carried by the Akulas are long-range cruise missiles that could have easily created numerous casualties at both these Naval bases from the Gulf.

Meanwhile, nuclear capable Russian bombers (aircraft) crossed into US sovereign airspace near Alaska and California over the Forth of July weekend. There is little doubt that these were planned probes of our national defense capabilities.

Let's recall a few short months ago when Obama told Medevev that he would have more latitude to expose our national defense secrets after his re-election. Obama made his statement believing that the microphone was off. Instead, the world heard his statement and the outgoing Russian president's response: . "I will transmit this information to Vladamir" (Spawning great T-shirts and Bumper Stickers).

These events come not long after the UN's failed attempt to strip the US of our Second Amendment through a treaty. They come as Obama attempts to campaign on reducing federal spending by starting with cuts to national defense. The first cuts usually go to training funds and intelligence programs. For those who weren't paying attention in the late 1990s, intelligence programs were cut back by the Clinton administration. Cross-agency communications became muddled and encumbered. Then on September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda initiated their forth major attack against the US, this time attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon rather than a couple of embassies and a US Naval vessel.

We knew that Obama was willing to play soft with the Russians. However, this latest breach of national security demonstrates he is more than just willing to play soft -- he is willing to let other countries use the US as a punching bag and a tackle-dummy.

Yes, our federal government needs to cut out wasteful spending. They need to trim back on the unnecessary bureaucratic offices. They need to quit spending money in areas in which the federal government has no authority nor responsibility to waste our tax money. They need to stop spending money taking care of criminals who illegally entered our country. They need to stop throwing money to those who would rather live off of the fruits of others' labors. The last place the government needs to cut spending is in the area of national defense. Our intelligence personnel are our first line of defense, since they are the ones looking for any possible threats. Pearl Harbor taught us that we cannot fight a threat we do not know to be there. (In the case of Pearl Harbor, it was the threat nobody high in FDR's administration would listen to the intelligence personnel who detected the pending attack).

These latest incursions and Obama's lack of response is demonstrative of the fact he wants the US militarily weak and ripe for attack by our enemies. Like Jimmy Carter did as a Naval Officer, Obama is running our Naval capabilities to ground. However, he is also grounding our Air Force and arming our Army and Marines with Nerf Reactor Ball Blasters.

This leaves me, a former intelligence analyst, with one question to my compatriots still in the fight:  Who is jumping up in down in their SCIF right now screaming "I Told You So!"?  I want to buy you a beer.