Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 19, 1991 TAG: 9102190478
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
The billion-dollar warship suffered cracks and other damage in Monday's blast, believed caused by a more sophisticated mine than previously seen in the gulf. It injured three crewmen and lifted the vessel partly out of the water.
The USS Tripoli, meanwhile, remained on duty after patching a hole in its own hull blown by a cruder mine just 2 1/2 hours earlier and 10 miles away.
The two explosions appeared to jeopardize any plans for an amphibious landing by the Marine task force positioned off the Kuwait coast - at least in the area where the ships were operating.
The Tripoli, an 18,000-ton helicopter assault carrier, is serving as flagship for a newly mounted mine-clearing operation in the area. The 2-year-old Princeton had been on anti-aircraft surveillance duty.
There were varying reports on the extent of damage to the 607-foot Princeton, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One report said the 9,600-ton ship's sustained damage to its stern and one of its two propellers; another said the hull was damaged in the middle, with cracks in the superstructure above the main deck.
They did not say to which gulf port the Princeton had headed for repairs.
A dozen mine sweepers from the U.S., Saudi and European navies are at work to clear out the thousands of mines the Iraqis are believed to have sown in coastal waters to deter any landing by the 15,000 Marines stationed aboard about 30 ships in the gulf.
The Marines are prepared to strike at Kuwaiti beaches by helicopter and assault boat as part of the anticipated ground offensive.
U.S. officials, however, were worried by the explosions, especially because the Princeton appeared to have been damaged by a so-called "influence mine" - a device the Iraqis were known to possess but had never before used.
"It's a definite threat. It's not a cheap, dumb mine," one official said. Another official said the likelihood of encountering such mines hadn't been "a high probability - we weren't really expecting it."
Both Iraq and Iran used mines in their eight-year war, and numerous ships were sunk or damaged in the gulf before the conflict ended in August 1988.
But in all cases, those mines were of the old-fashioned contact type, moored by a cable or dumped in the water to drift with the currents. A contact mine explodes when a ship bumps into one of its detonator horns.
Influence mines, however, rest on the bottom, where they are harder to find and can be set off by the noise, water pressure or the magnetic "signature" of a ship approaching or passing overhead.
Iraq is believed to possess Soviet-made influence mines called KMD-500s and KMD-1000s, which can be dropped from aircraft or surface vessels and contain 660 or 840 pounds of high explosives.
The military officials said the Princeton was operating in waters 120 to 180 feet deep when it was blasted. One said some influence-type mines could cause extensive damage to a surface vessel from as far down as 300 feet.
The Tripoli, built in the 1960s and based at San Diego, Calif., had a hole in its bow, but the crew managed to patch it, the officials said.
The Tripoli is serving as mother ship for four mine sweepers sent by the United States and five British mine sweepers, and has on its deck a detachment of six Navy MH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters fitted for mine-sweeping.
British and Saudi spokesmen said on condition of anonymity that the mine-sweeping effort began Monday, apparently in waters off Kuwait. They did not say whether the clearing was in anticipation of a beach assault.
A pool report from the Tripoli said the ship was "dead in the water" for several hours after the mine blast, and water flooded several forward compartments through a hole 16 by 26 feet.
by CNB