CBSA - The Emerging Era in Undersea Warfare

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http://csbaonline.org/publications/2015/01/undersea-warfare/

U.S. defense strategy depends in large part on America’s advantage in undersea warfare. Quiet submarines are one of the U.S. military’s most viable means of gathering intelligence and projecting power in the face of mounting anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) threats being fielded by a growing number of countries. As a result, undersea warfare is an important, if not essential, element of current and future U.S. operational plans. America’s rivals worry in particular about the access submarines provide for U.S. power-projection operations, which can help offset an enemy’s numerical or geographic advantages.

Broadly speaking, undersea warfare is the employment of submarines and other undersea systems in military operations within and from the underwater domain. These missions may be both offensive and defensive and include surveillance, insertion of Special Forces, and destroying or neutralizing enemy military forces and undersea infrastructure.

America’s superiority in undersea warfare is the product of decades of research and development (R&D), a sophisticated defense industrial base, operational experience, and high-fidelity training. This superiority, however, is far from assured. U.S. submarines are the world’s quietest, but new detection techniques are emerging that do not rely on the noise a submarine makes, and that may render traditional manned submarine operations far riskier in the future.

America’s competitors are likely pursuing these technologies while also expanding their own undersea forces. To sustain its undersea advantage well into this century, the U.S. Navy must accelerate innovation in undersea warfare by reconsidering the role of manned submarines and exploiting emerging technologies to field a new “family of undersea systems.”

http://breakingdefense.com/2015/01/transparent-sea-the-unstealthy-future-of-submarines/
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Downloadable report and briefing slides at the link.
 
I keep wondering if we're ever going to replace the Mk48, and what happened to supercavitating torpedo research in the US. (If you haven't read it, go to Scientific American's archive and read "Warp Drive Underwater".
 
sferrin said:
I keep wondering if we're ever going to replace the Mk48, and what happened to supercavitating torpedo research in the US. (If you haven't read it, go to Scientific American's archive and read "Warp Drive Underwater".
The sacrifices to the weapons' range etc necessitated to achieve supercavitation outweigh the utility of speed, at least so far. I don't know if the supercav SDV is still being actively worked on.


Mk48 replacement was supposed to happen in the 90s but keeps getting pushed back in favor of upgrades. Latest word I've seen is that a hybrid electric torpedo is on the way which offers a big step up in range and stealth, but the Navy has to find the money for it.
 
sferrin said:
I keep wondering if we're ever going to replace the Mk48, and what happened to supercavitating torpedo research in the US. (If you haven't read it, go to Scientific American's archive and read "Warp Drive Underwater".

sferrin - I think I have the issue in my archives just have to find it.

I do believe the technological trend making the ocean more transparent (i.e. increasingly dangerous to submarines) totally vindicates our view that ICBMs are still a key weapons system for strategic deterrence. 420 or so very hard targets, spread out in CONUS that need 2 warheads/silo (840) when your enemy has only 1550 deployed strategic warheads. Rather than 10 targets (SSBNs) that in the 2030+ timeframe may be more detectable AND able to be destroyed with conventional weapons.
 
Several years ago the US Navy became so concerned over the new generation of diesel electric submarines that they rented both boat and crew from Sweden to serve as Guinea Pigs. After 2 to 3 years the tests concluded and......silence. I remember seeing comments about an "underwater Aegis" having been achieved but zero confirmation or official comments. From what I can recall, stories centered on a dispersed multistatic sensor array feeding signals into a supercomputer which would process out all the multipath emissions leaving just real targets. There were also tests of new low frequency sonars which naturally caused the whale huggers to sue in court to halt the development. I wish I could recall where I saw these articles. I can only remember the gist of them.
In any event, all these activities seemed to just fade away with time and nothing seemed to come of it. Which would make the US Navy very happy if they actually succeeded.
 
First of all what I am about to say is totally anecdotal.

My wife's cousin served on one of the Swedish subs and talked about several exercises
with the UK and USA where the Gotland-class subs were essentially undetectable on
a regular basis. Needless to say, the USN was quite horrified and frustrated by all this.
 
shivering said:
First of all what I am about to say is totally anecdotal.

My wife's cousin served on one of the Swedish subs and talked about several exercises
with the UK and USA where the Gotland-class subs were essentially undetectable on
a regular basis. Needless to say, the USN was quite horrified and frustrated by all this.

If they needed a wake up call I'm glad they got it. I just wish I could see evidence they've acted on it since then.
 
In viewing the video and reading the report it sounds like the USN has received the wake up call and is busy developing systems to counter quiet diesel electric subs.
 
Video presentation for The Emerging Era in Undersea Warfare


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLmM8PK2bos#t=102


Your presenter: Bryan Clark
 
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/Next-Generation_Unmanned_Undersea_Systems.pdf
 
http://www.scout.com/military/warrior/story/1752442-navy-undersea-drone-finds-destroys-mines
 

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