thedrifter
08-19-07, 05:25 PM
Photo of sensitive sub propeller hits Web
By Andrew Scutro - ascutro@militarytimes.com
Posted : August 27, 2007
A photograph of a sensitive piece of Navy technology — the propeller of a ballistic-missile submarine — now appears on the Internet, thanks to commercial efforts to photograph and map all corners of the Earth by aircraft and satellite.
And it appears there by accident.
Dan Twohig works as a deck officer on the ferry that runs between Seattle and Bremerton, Wash. He was thinking of moving to be closer to his job, so he began scanning the real estate on the Bremerton side of Puget Sound using the Microsoft mapping tool called Virtual Earth. He saw the ballistic submarine in dry dock and its exposed propeller.
“My initial reaction was ‘oops.’ Then I looked around awhile 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,” he said.
Posting ‘for the average Joe’
Twohig posted a link to the photo on his Web site; Marine Corps Times is not publishing the name of the site. “My intention of bringing the prop photos to the attention of my readers was in no way malicious,” he said, adding that he wanted to highlight that the image exists for “the average Joe to find if he is looking for it.”
The Navy goes to great lengths to conceal the design of its submarine propellers, but the aerial photo now on the Internet clearly shows the blades.
While he confirmed that the photo does show an Ohio-class hull, Lt. Cmdr. Chris Loundermon, submarine force spokesman, said it’s unclear what submarine is pictured.
Though the photograph appears on a Microsoft site, photo credit is given to Pictometry International Corporation, which specializes in such aerial photography. Several messages left for a company spokesman were not returned.
The submarine maintenance facility is photographed in good detail from several angles. A further search through Virtual Earth shows a ballistic submarine in an East Coast shipyard with its missile tubes open.
Microsoft provided a statement attributed to Justin Osmer, a senior product manager at LiveSearch, through public relations firm Waggener-Edstrom.
“Our mapping products fully comply with U.S. laws governing the acquisition and publishing of aerial imagery,” the statement reads. “The clarity of the images is impressive, but beyond a certain zoom level, the images become ‘pixilated’ and blur. In addition, some Virtual Earth imagery can only be viewed from certain distances.
“Additionally, there are other instances where images have been intentionally blurred for security purposes. We review requests to do so on a case-by-case basis.”
A request to interview a Microsoft official about the program was not granted.
Naval Sea Systems Command did not respond to a request for information about government rules on overflights of naval shipyards and facilities by press time.
Ellie
By Andrew Scutro - ascutro@militarytimes.com
Posted : August 27, 2007
A photograph of a sensitive piece of Navy technology — the propeller of a ballistic-missile submarine — now appears on the Internet, thanks to commercial efforts to photograph and map all corners of the Earth by aircraft and satellite.
And it appears there by accident.
Dan Twohig works as a deck officer on the ferry that runs between Seattle and Bremerton, Wash. He was thinking of moving to be closer to his job, so he began scanning the real estate on the Bremerton side of Puget Sound using the Microsoft mapping tool called Virtual Earth. He saw the ballistic submarine in dry dock and its exposed propeller.
“My initial reaction was ‘oops.’ Then I looked around awhile 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,” he said.
Posting ‘for the average Joe’
Twohig posted a link to the photo on his Web site; Marine Corps Times is not publishing the name of the site. “My intention of bringing the prop photos to the attention of my readers was in no way malicious,” he said, adding that he wanted to highlight that the image exists for “the average Joe to find if he is looking for it.”
The Navy goes to great lengths to conceal the design of its submarine propellers, but the aerial photo now on the Internet clearly shows the blades.
While he confirmed that the photo does show an Ohio-class hull, Lt. Cmdr. Chris Loundermon, submarine force spokesman, said it’s unclear what submarine is pictured.
Though the photograph appears on a Microsoft site, photo credit is given to Pictometry International Corporation, which specializes in such aerial photography. Several messages left for a company spokesman were not returned.
The submarine maintenance facility is photographed in good detail from several angles. A further search through Virtual Earth shows a ballistic submarine in an East Coast shipyard with its missile tubes open.
Microsoft provided a statement attributed to Justin Osmer, a senior product manager at LiveSearch, through public relations firm Waggener-Edstrom.
“Our mapping products fully comply with U.S. laws governing the acquisition and publishing of aerial imagery,” the statement reads. “The clarity of the images is impressive, but beyond a certain zoom level, the images become ‘pixilated’ and blur. In addition, some Virtual Earth imagery can only be viewed from certain distances.
“Additionally, there are other instances where images have been intentionally blurred for security purposes. We review requests to do so on a case-by-case basis.”
A request to interview a Microsoft official about the program was not granted.
Naval Sea Systems Command did not respond to a request for information about government rules on overflights of naval shipyards and facilities by press time.
Ellie