Very grim : Not much hope for missing Indonesian submarine
The Indonesian navy lost contact with the vessel yesterday, while it conducted a torpedo drill about 100km north of Bali.
And one of Australia s leading minds on submarines is very pessimistic about the fate of 53 Indonesian sailors on board the KRI Nanggala-402.
READ MORE:
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Marcus Hellyer said things were looking very grim . There s lots of things that can go wrong on submarines, Dr Hellyer told nine.com.au. If a submarine has an accident at sea, it tends to be catastrophically bad.
An oil slick has been spotted in the spot where the submarine dived from the surface, but aside from that, there is no trace of the KRI Nanggala-402.
National security experts and federal Labor have welcomed the Morrison government’s decision to tear up Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’s Belt and Road agreement with the Chinese government, but warned there could be economic retaliation from Beijing.
China continues to detain Uyghurs, other Turkic Muslims shanghainews.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from shanghainews.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The navy chief said the other vessels that had been involved in the drill including 21 warships, two submarines and five planes had joined the frantic search.
If the submarine had sunk too deep, however, the outlook was grim, according to Indonesian defence analyst Connie Rahakundini Bakrie.
“If it lies at that depth I have to say with a heavy heart that the steel structure of the vessel won’t be strong,” she said.
Former submariner Frank Owen, who is secretary of the Submarine Institute of Australia, said another complicating factor was there were more people on board than the normal crew capacity of 34 and oxygen reserves would be depleted faster than usual.
Advertisement
China has threatened retaliation over the federal governmentâs decision to cancel Victoriaâs Belt and Road agreement as the move secured support across the political and security spectrums in Australia.
But senior Australian officials who were not authorised to speak on the record said Australia was prepared to wear Chinaâs response given how the nation had survived the past year of economic coercion.
In the first official comments from the Chinese government since Wednesday nightâs decision, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the move would deepen tensions between Canberra and Beijing. Australia is the first country to have scrapped a signed BRI agreement.