Alternative Boomer Collision Theory
By Joe Buff has an idea:
The two boomers may have been practicing sub-on-sub combat maneuvers, including the classic close-trail so well dramatized in “Hunt for Red October.” Would two boomers ever fight in a real life war situation? Oh yes! It’s public info that SSBN crews train hard so that, if they ever do have to launch their missiles, they and their sub can then stay immediately useful and relevant by switching over to the attack as an ersatz SSN, to go on the hunt for enemy SSBNs. (Their extreme quiet, powerful passive sonars, and heavyweight anti-sub torpedoes make them decent platforms in that role.)
In addition, it’s public info that to save money and maximize utility of all navy assets, SSBNs while transiting to and from their patrol areas will sometimes serve as “training targets” for anti-submarine forces. Either of these situations could account for why the Royal Navy and French SSBNs were so close together to begin with that they collided while submerged. Statistically speaking this seems more likely to explain it, rather than a totally random encounter against astronomical odds under the high seas.
Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why would French and RN subs hunt one another, rather than subs from their own respective fleets? The upside, I suppose, is exposure to different tactics, but the downside is a serious loss of operational security. Also, as some commenters at Defense Tech point out, the odds of collision aren’t all that astronomical, given that subs trying to do exactly the same job would try to hide under the same ocean conditions.