A US nuclear submarine struck an unidentified object while patrolling the South China Sea, an area widely claimed by China, last weekend. The US Navy reports. “The USS Connecticut struck an object on the afternoon of October 2 as it sailed submerged in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region,” the US Navy said in a statement. “There are no fatal injuries,” the statement continues, suggesting that some sailors may have been slightly injured.
The USS Connecticut, a Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine, was damaged but remains functional, the United States Navy added. According to the Naval Institute, a think tank close to the US Navy, the USS Connecticut was participating in an international naval exercise in the South China Sea during the incident.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea and has built military outposts on small islands and atolls in the region. The United States and its allies regularly patrol the region’s international waters to assert their rights to free navigation, to Beijing’s irritation.