US Navy Helping With Desperate Search for Missing Argentine Sub and 44 Sailors
Pentagon officials confirmed to CBN News on Monday the U.S. Navy has ordered its Undersea Rescue Command to deploy to Argentina to assist with the efforts to locate an Argentine Navy submarine.
The ARA San Juan sub disappeared some four days ago with 44 crew members aboard.
A U.S. Navy Submarine Rescue Chamber and underwater intervention Remotely Operated Vehicle, were transported Sunday to Argentina.
A U.S. space agency P-3 explorer aircraft and a U.S. P-8A Poseidon plane are already deployed for the search.
The Argentine navy said late Saturday it had detected seven failed "satellite calls," likely from the crew of the submarine that went missing earlier this week.
Despite turbulent weather that included strong winds and 6-meter waves, base commander Admiral Gabriel Gonzalez said naval forces were increasing efforts above and below the water's surface and were preparing to comb the bottom of the ocean.
"The underwater search is obviously much more complicated than the search at the surface because it requires a combination of high-tech tools," Gonzalez said at a news conference.
The navy, which launched an air and sea search Thursday, said an initial search at the vessel's last known position, about 430 kilometers off the southeastern Valdez peninsula, turned up no clues.
