Pentagon officials say a US ocean-going tugboat was nearby and ready to assist, but the Soviets refused any help. Pentagon sources do not rule out the possibility that the Soviets scuttled their sub once it became clear that leaks could not be controlled.
The Soviets have not explained the cause of the damage to the ship, but Pentagon officials say there was an explosion in one of the missile tubes that blew a big hole in the deck. Vice Admiral Powell Carter describes the damage this way:
"You're talking about a structure that's enormously strong up there. It's like, each of those missile tube doors that shuts is just like a safe vault. And then it shuts and locks with a big rotating ring, and that's been torn completely loose and bent like a pretzel back. So the force of the explosion was enormous."
While Pentagon officials say they don't know what caused the missile tube explosion, they point out that Soviet missiles use highly volatile liquid fuel, and a fuel leak could have caused the eruption. Again, Admiral Carter:
"These liquid fuel systems are very, very dangerous; they're very unstable. That's why, very early in our missile program as pushing a leading edge of technology, we moved to solid fuel missiles, early on just for that fact, because liquid fuel is extremely dangerous."
Admiral Carter said it was possible the nuclear warheads on top of the missile burned in the fire, or were thrown out into the water and sunk to the bottom 18,000 feet below. He said the other missiles and warheads might have been damaged by pressure as the sub sank, but there was no chance of a nuclear detonation or serious radiation leakage.
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