The American nuclear submarine USS Connecticut (SSN-22, the second ship of the Seawolf II project) was attacked by bedbugs. The bloodsuckers did not allow the crew to live in peace for about a year, and the command of the boat, according to the assurances of the sailors, was in no hurry to solve the problem.
According to the Navy Times, citing one of the officers, the first presence of insects on the submarine was noticed back in March 2020 during the ICEX 2020 exercise in the Arctic Ocean. After that, the sailors tried to fight the invasion on their own for several months, but all was in vain.
According to Cynthia Fields, a spokeswoman for the Navy's Surface Forces in the Pacific, the boat's command first reported the problem to its superiors in December, with the" physical presence " of bedbugs on board only confirmed by the end of February. This was a prerequisite for the start of a large-scale disinfection.
The delay in solving the problem is due to the fact that the command of the boat also did not believe the sailors at first - they were required to "live" evidence, but it was not so easy to catch the insects. As a result, many crew members began to sleep anywhere - on chairs or on the floor-rather than return to their bunks. As a result-total lack of sleep and fatigue, which began to threaten the combat capability of the submarine.
Now the submarine has finally been processed, but the sailors are not sure that everything possible has really been done and the insects will not return.
Alexey Ivanov