Indonesian Submarine Disappears During Routine Naval Drill

An Indonesian Navy submarine has disappeared somewhere in the North Bali waters following a series of naval drills this week. Reuters reported Wednesday that a search party has been dispatched by the Navy to try and locate the lost sub, which was staffed with crew members when it disappeared.

The vessel was participating in torpedo drills when it suddenly failed to report results of an exercise as expected, said First Admiral Julius Widjojono.

According to Reuters, the KRI Nanggala 402 was built in Germany in 1981, has a cruising speed of 21.5 knots and can take up to 34 passengers.

A Navy spokesman, and a spokesman for the defense ministry, weren’t immediately available to respond to questions about how many crewmembers were on board.

Setting aside the potential loss of life, losing a submarine would be a big loss for the Indonesia Navy, since it only has 5 submarines in its fleet. One Twitter user pointed out an interesting coincidence: on April 5, Indonesia laid down a submarine “support station” on a rocky island in the contested South China Sea, which Beijing claims as its own backyard.

Three weeks later, a submarine has mysteriously failed to report back after a routine torpedo drill.