Two little unmanned U.S. Navy submarines were being loaded aboard a cargo plane in California on Friday to join an attempt to rescue seven Russian sailors trapped in a military mini-submarine on the Pacific floor. The remote-controlled, deep-diving "Super Scorpio" submersibles were to depart San Diego for Petropavolvsk on an Air Force C-5 later on Friday with a team of Navy operators, said Lt. Junior Grade Maria Miller, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon, according to Reuters. Miller said the underwater vehicles, capable of cutting through steel cable, would be moved by truck to a Russian ship to be taken to the scene in an attempt to aid in the rescue. The submersibles and their operating crews are attached to the Navy's Deep Submergence Unit based at the naval base in San Diego. The vessels are 4 feet (1.2 metres) long, 4 feet (1.2 metres) wide, 8 feet (2.4 metres) high and weigh 4,500 pounds(2045 kg). Miller said they were capable of diving to an ocean depth of 5,000 feet (1,515 metres). "It has the capability of cutting steel cable 1 inch (2.54 cm) thick," she said. In Russia, officials said they requested help after the small Russian submarine apparently became tangled in the cable from a fishing net.
