Here is a story that I had glanced at this morning, but Kurticus Maximus brought to my full attention. Supposedly, last month a Chinese submarine tracked an American aircraft carrier group. The article insists that the submarine got close enough to fire its missiles before it was detected. This story hasn't been in many other newspapers, but the premise is entirely valid. The lack of funding for further research into submarine warfare is a byproduct of winning hte cold war. While China continues to upgrade, modernize, and expand their naval capabilities we mothball some of the greatest ships that have ever been made. There have been plans by the Navy to maybe cut the U.S. submarine force down by almost 1/3.
The threat to the United States that is posed by the Chinese Navy is not just the imagination of warmongering conservatives. China's incursions into international waters have taken them closer and closer to the United States and our assets around the world. In Febuary 2005, Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld commented that the size of the Chinese fleet could surpass that of the United States in as little as a decade. "It is an issue that the department thinks about and is concerned about and is attentive to." Umm...sorry Rummy old boy, but it is past the time for concern. Even Germany has been developing new subs. This video shows their new sub which they have billed as the quietest sub in the world. Actually the Gotland class sub made by the Swedish is the quitest sub in the world; and it was made ten years ago.
The German captain in the video makes cruise missiles look like something that the Germans came up with yesterday. They been used on subs for almost fourty years.
And we should make subs just because they are cool. Yeah i am a neo-con. I don't mind our military scraping the boomers. They were a necessary evil, but i find myself feeling a lot safer now that we don't have huge subs stuffed full with nuclear weapons all over the world. They were never as fast or sexy as the fast attack boats anyways. So America, we need more subs. The next goal is to engineer a nuclear sub that is almost as quiet as a diesel working on batteries. Sometimes i miss the russians. At least back then we made awesome subs. The Chinese are not as dangerous as the Soviets are, but it would be a shame to lose a war based on bad politics. Screw the hungry. Build subs.
May the force be with you.
P.S.-Here are some cool links
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/type_212/
http://mil.jschina.com.cn/huitong/han_xia_kilo_song.htm
http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,NI_China_0303,00.html
This is a submarineers blog that is really cool. I plan to add it to my blogroll.
http://makeyourdepth.blogspot.com/
PSS-okay so we still do make attack subs. On September 9th, 2006, the USS Texas was commissioned. But we need more. Sorry if i sound greedy. Oh..and more aircraft carriers. What the hell guys?
Monday, November 13, 2006
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2 comments:
"The next goal is to engineer a nuclear sub that is almost as quiet as a diesel working on batteries."
Why not just build new diesels? I'd say copy that Swedish Gotland and get it into production fast. How long can we afford $3 billion nuke subs?
The main reason why the United States doesn't use diesel subs is that they are better suited to watching one's own ports or lurking outside of an enemy's port. Diesel subs lack the speed of a nuclear sub so they are ill suited to the type of missions that subs are used for today. Getting quickly to an area for a dropoff is very important to the United States military today.
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