PH1 (AW/NAC) Michael Moriatis/Wikimedia Commons
Tomorrow’s Stealthy Subs Could Sink America’s Navy -- Bill Sweetman, Daily Beast
The U.S. military is relying on sub-hunting tech that’s decades old. Meanwhile, the targets they’re trying to find are getting quieter and more invisible by the day.
Submarines are getting quieter, stealthier, and better armed. And that could mean major trouble for the U.S. Navy and its aging fleet of sub-hunters. The tactical balance between the surface warship and the submarine has strategic impact. The submarine is not made for a show of force. Its principal weapon is designed not to damage a ship, but to sink it—rapidly and probably with much loss of life. It’s a sure way to shift the trajectory of any conflict in a more violent direction.
The best deterrent against submarine attack is robust defense—but as little as surface sailors like to discuss it, that defense has seldom been less assured.
Modern diesel-electric submarines (SSKs) are very hard to detect. It’s not that SSKs with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems are much quieter, but they mitigate the SSK’s drawback: lack of speed and endurance on quiet electric power. When the Swedish AIP boat Gotland operated with the U.S. Navy out of San Diego in 2005-07, the Navy’s surface ships turned up all too often in a photo album acquired by the submarine’s mast. The sub was so quiet, that it consistently managed to get within easy torpedo range.
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My Comment: The U.S. Navy is certainly committing itself to having submarines .... Sub Deal Tops $30 Billion in April Contracts -- DoD Buzz
2 comments:
Our ASW people are very very good. In a major conflict these subs would be of little consequence and be disposed of fairly quickly. But we are in a different kind of war. All these guys need to do is get a good hit on a US capital ship, not even sink it, just a good hit and they'll stupify the world.
The last time that a U.S. aircraft carrier was sunk was in 1945. But we live in a different world .... so yes James .... I agree .... just one hit will send shock-waves.
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