The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
More Books by James Dunnigan
|
Dirty Little Secrets
Russia's Secret Submarine Weapon Gets Exported
by James Dunnigan
July 12, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
The most serious damage done to the U.S. Navy
since World War II, occurred during the 1980s, when Soviet intelligence efforts
developed two well placed agents in the U.S. Navy (John Walker and Jerry
Whitworth). This spy operation revealed to the Russians how noisy (and easy to
detect) their subs were, and what needed to be done to make them quieter. In
two decades of effort, the Russians have made their subs so quiet that they can
only be detected a few kilometers away by American sensors. In the 1980s,
American subs could usually spot their Russian counterparts hundreds of
kilometers away. Russia is now selling this “quieting” technology to China.
In the last decade, the U.S. Navy has had ample examples of how vulnerable
American ships are to modern diesel-electric subs. In that time, French Daphné
class, German Type 209, and Swedish Collins class (used by South Africa, Chile
and Australia, respectively) have all gotten close enough to American carriers
to hit them with simulated torpedo attacks. Russian and Chinese subs now have
the technology to build subs just as quiet. During the 1982 Falklands war, a
German built Type 209 Argentinean sub evaded a month of British efforts to find
and sink it.
There are some 40 countries that have a combined force of over 300
diesel-electric subs. Most of these countries are either American allies, or
are using older, noisier, type subs. But countries like North Korea, China and
Iran are all benefiting from the Russian quieting breakthroughs of the last two
decades. The U.S. navy got complacent about subs over the last half century.
Russian subs were not only noisy, they were also manned by poorly trained
crews. Russian nuclear subs were particularly noisy and easy to find. American
ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) efforts were rarely challenged.
The U.S. Navy has not developed an effective ASW force since World War II. Lots
of attempts since then, but nothing that really worked. This does not count the
cooperative Russians, who built noisy boats that we could track. But all
through that period we knew that the quieter diesel-electric boats of our
allies were very difficult to track. Fortunately, the Cold War ended just as
the Russians figured out how to make quiet subs. The Russians still have
problems with poorly trained crews, but the Chinese are trying to solve that
one. The Chinese sub force could thus be an ugly “surprise” in any future war.
Quiet Chinese boats (like the new Russian Kilos they are receiving), and well
trained crews, can easily be the end of American carrier aviation
|
|
