14 DAY TRIAL // There are little secrets left in the world and with Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth mapping every nook and cranny of the planet's surface, items that might have catalyzed an arms race during the Cold War become more and more everyday commodities. Top secret nuclear submarines for example are no longer classified data, but mundane information accessible via the browser, Google and Microsoft web-based mapping services and a few clicks of the mouse.
It was the case with the Jin-class top secret Chinese nuclear submarine popping out on Google Earth in July and it is the case now with Virtual Earth. The image included in this article was spotted by Dan Twohig, deck officer on the ferryboat connecting Seattle and Bremerton in Washington U.S. on virtual Earth. It features no more and no less than an Ohio-class submarine, in plain sight on the Naval Submarine Base Kitsap-Bangor. As you can see the submarine is kept in dry dock and details are clearly visible. The photo itself has ended up on Microsoft's Virtual Earth from Pictometry International Corporation, a leading company in aerial imagery.
Twohig revealed that he was doing nothing more than evaluating real estate properties on the Bremerton side of Puget Sound via Virtual Earth when he stumbled across the image. "My initial reaction was 'oops.' Then I looked around a while and looked at other things. If you look at the White House, it's all blurred out. They protect that, but don't protect what else is out there," Twohig commented as cited by NavyTimes and then explained his action of making the image public. "My intention of bringing the prop photos to the attention of my readers was in no way malicious."
The propellers are an integer part of the reason for the secrecy veil surrounding Ohio-class submarines, because they are a fragment of the hull design meant to give the vessel an invisible profile while underwater. "Yes, that is an Ohio-class submarine, either an SSBN or SSGN, in dry dock in the Pacific Northwest at the intermediate maintenance facility on the Naval Submarine Base Kitsap-Bangor," admitted Cmdr. Chris Loundermon, submarine force public affairs officer.