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Abstract
The events that led to the shipwreck of the Argentine Navy’s Submarine ARA San Juan while underway in the Argentine Sea in November 2017 remain unknown. After a year-long search, the ARA San Juan was finally found on the seabed at a depth of nearly 1,000 m. In November 2018, photographs taken of the sub revealed that propulsion loss suffered by the vessel caused it to sink slowly beyond its hull crush depth, leaving its wreck at the bottom of the sea. Sebastián Vigliero presents the events that took place in the combined Search and Rescue-Submarine (SAR-Sub) operation of the ARA San Juan, for a greater understanding of the capabilities, assets and technologies employed and deployed during the operation. Lasting almost a year, the combined operation, led and coordinated by the Argentine Navy and assisted by 13 foreign navies, eventually turned out to be the largest multinational naval deployment in history pertaining to the search for a missing submarine. ◼
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Nicolás Wiñazki, ‘Un Año De Misterios, Errores, Adivinos Y Conspiraciones’ [‘A Year of Mysteries, Errors, Guesses and Conspiracies’], Clarín, 18 November 2018, <https://www.clarin.com/politica/ano-misterios-errores-adivinos-conspiraciones_0_BRtj530xj.html>, accessed 26 November 2023.
2 José Higuera, ‘Response to Missing Submarine Exposes Argentina’s Serviceability Limitations’, Jane’s Defence Weekly (Vol. 54, No. 48, November 2017), p. 12.
3 Author interviews with ex-Commander of Operations, Enlistment and Training Command (COAA), Vice Admiral Luis López Mazzeo, and ex-Commander of Submarine Force Command (COFS), Captain Claudio Javier Villamide, via phone, 2020–2022. In the case of Villamide, some interviews were conducted in person and took place in Buenos Aires.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Information provided to the author by the International Affairs Directorate Office, Ministry of Defence, Argentine Republic, December 2017.
7 Information provided to the author by the International Affairs Directorate Office, Ministry of Defence, Argentine Republic, December 2017; see also Jamie Hunter (ed.), Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft: In Service 2016–2017 (London: IHS Janes, 2016).
8 Information provided to the author by the International Affairs Directorate Office, Ministry of Defence, Argentine Republic, December 2017.
9 Commodore Stephen Saunders and Tom Philpott (eds), Jane’s Fighting Ships 2016–2017 (London: IHS Janes, 2016).
10 Hunter (ed.), Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft. On 22 November, the multi-role transport aircraft (MRTT)–Airbus A-310 ‘Voyager’ A-300 version, belonging to the RAF–landed in Mosconi Airport, Comodoro Rivadavia, something that had not happened since before the Falklands War in 1982.
11 Ibid.
12 Author’s research information from the International Affairs Directorate Office, Ministry of Defence, Argentine Republic, December 2017; author interviews with ex Commander of COFS, Captain Claudio Javier Villamide, Buenos Aires, 2020–2021.
13 Saunders and Philpott (eds), Jane’s Fighting Ships 2016–2017.
14 Ibid.
15 Hunter (ed.), Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft.
16 Ibid.
17 Author’s research information from the International Affairs Directorate Office, Ministry of Defence, Argentine Republic, December 2017; author interviews with ex Commander of COFS, Captain Claudio Javier Villamide, Buenos Aires, 2020–2021.
18 Hunter (ed.), Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 The C-5 Galaxy is one of the most important military logistic aircraft in the world due to its large cargo capacity and endurance that enable it to fly long distances in a short time and provide crucial military logistic support to US, Iraqi and Afghan armed forces.
22 Hunter (ed.), Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft.
23 Saunders and Philpott (eds), Jane’s Fighting Ships 2016–2017.
24 Ibid.
25 Ian Keddie (ed.), Janés Unmanned Maritime Vehicles 2016–2017 (London: IHS Janes, 2016).
26 Ibid.; Klein System 3000, Klein Associates, Inc., 2017.
27 Author interviews with Vice Admiral Luis López Mazzeo and Captain Claudio Javier Villamide, 2020–2022.
28 Navy spokesman, Captain Enrique Balbi, told the press that the Argentine government received information about the ARA San Juan from the Argentine ambassador in Austria, Rafael Grossi. See Navy’s General Joint Staff, Press Conference, Buenos Aires, 23 November 2017.
29 Bruce Rule, ‘Why the ARA San Juan (S-42) Was Lost, an Assessment on Analyses of Acoustic Detections of the Event’, report, 12 March 2018. This was an internal publication. Rule, now retired, worked for 40 years in the US Office of Naval Intelligence. He produced the reports on the sinking of the US submarines USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.
30 Hunter (ed.), Jane’s Fighting Ships 2016.
31 Keddie (ed.), Jane’s Unmanned Maritime Vehicles 2016–2017. The first CURV 21 was embarked on board a USAF C-5 aircraft that arrived in Argentina on 1 December. The CURV 21 can explore a maximum depth of 6,000 m and operate remotely. It has a complex detection system with multiple functions.
32 The Antonov An-124 was similar to the American Lockheed C-5 Galaxy but slightly larger. It was, among one of the most significant military cargo and military transport aircraft in the world. See Hunter (ed.), Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft.
33 Saunders and Philpott (eds), Jane’s Fighting Ships 2016-2017.
34 The rescue team included the head of the Rescue Research Institute and the Center for Military Research and Training in Underwater Technologies and 12 deep-sea divers, a doctor, operators of the teleguided apparatus and 20 aeronauts.
35 SAAB, ‘Seaeye Falcon Deeper Rated (DR)’, <www.seaeye.com/falcon.html>, accessed 26 November 2023. The Seaeye Falcon Deeper Rated (DR) prototype belonged to the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet.
36 Saunders and Philpott (eds), Jane’s Fighting Ships 2016-2017.
37 Ocean Infinity provided a comprehensive seabed exploration system and allowed for multi-tasking. It was the US company that searched for Malaysia Airlines MH370, which disappeared from radars on 8 March 2014 while covering the Kuala Lumpur–Beijing route with 239 people on board.
38 A Norwegian-flagged British multipurpose vessel–launched in 2013–provided by the British company Swire Seabed AS, which carried a set of autonomous underwater vehicle to explore deep underwater.
39 Ocean Infinity, ‘Seaworker. Unmanned Surface Vehicle’, <www.oceaninfinity.com>, accessed 26 November 2023; Keddie (ed.), Janés Unmanned Maritime Vehicles 2016–2017.
40 Gustavo Oulego, La Búsqueda Del ARA San Juan [The Search of ARA San Juan] (Buenos Aires: Galerna, 2016), p. 163. The information quoted in this book was also complemented by Navy’s General Joint Staff, Gaceta Marinera SARSUB´s daily brief.
41 Ibid., p. 167.
42 Ibid., p. 178.
43 José María Costa, ‘ARA San Juan: El Clima Adverso Le Dio Dramatismo A Un Hallazgo Con El Último Aliento’ [‘ARA San Juan: The Adverse Weather Gave Drama to a Find to the Last Breath’], La Nación, 18 November 2018, <https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/el-clima-adverso-le-dio-dramatismo-a-un-hallazgo-con-el-ultimo-aliento-nid2192921/>, accessed 18 November 2018. The then Argentine ambassador to the Republic of Austria, Rafael Grossi, confirmed to the press that ‘the discovery took place at a distance of 15 to 18 km from the place where the hydroacoustic anomaly was detected’. Mariano De Vedia, ‘El ARA “San Juan” Implosionó Y Ven Muy Difícil Poder Reflotarlo’ [‘The ARA San Juan Imploded, and They Find it Very Difficult to Refloat it’], La Nación, 18 November 2018, <https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/el-ara-san-juan-implosiono-y-ven-muy-dificil-poder-reflotarloinfo-3016-mm-nid2192917/>, accessed 18 November 2018.
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Notes on contributors
Sebastián Vigliero
Sebastián Vigliero is an adjunct professor of Defence and International Security at the Political Science Carrier, University of Buenos Aires, and of Argentine Foreign Policy at the University of Macroeconomics Center Studies (UCEMA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He holds a BSc in Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires and an MSc in International Relations from the Latin America Faculty of Social Science (FLACSO). He is also a counselor member of the Argentine Council of International Relations.