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Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat
very interesting read.
There were always rumours that the Kursk may have had a collision with a U.S. sub and that this may have contributed to the accident. Has anyone ever looked into that aspect?
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Indeed they have, the USS Memphis pulled into Norway 3 days after the explosion which initially lead to the speculation of a collision but lack of damage also showed no involvement Memphis went under way again not long after making port.
According to US Sources it was to drop of tapes that they had recorded of the incident so they could be taken back to the US to be analyzed.
We do know the US did inform the Russians that both their submarines (Memphis and Toledo) were in the area at that time and were not involved, There was also a British submarine HMS Splendid in the area and she came back un damaged.
To be honest I Don't think the collision theory has much weight behind it, mainly because you have a 19,000ton SSGN going against a 6,000ton SSN the damage to the SSN would have been severe as we had seen in previous collisions.
Being double hulled the Kursk would likely have suffered a big dent but nothing major enough to cause what happened, this view is supported by the Russian admirals and government.
The other theory that a western torpedo was fired at Kursk I also find ridiculous simply because the amount of ASW assets in the area and other submarines and ships any firing from a western boat would have immediately been responded too by force.
The conspiracy theory points to a circular shape on the casing as the entry point for a MK48 ADCAP, I am pretty sure it was actually caused by the wire cutter they used to remove the bow during lifting operations.
Besides Kursk and her sisters are designed in such a way to take at least one direct hit.
The lack of fire damage aft of compartment 3 plus the wreckage we see of the bow is peeled outwards the explosion is almost certainly internal.
On top of that had a torpedo impacted the Kursk from the outside 2 mins and 15 seconds it a long time too cook off weapons, and had the torpedo got inside there would have been substantial flooding enough to keep the weapons at least reasonably cool and prevent flash over, in Any case likely a survivable event.