Submarines bring an amazingly unique and valuable capability across the spectrum of operations from irregular warfare to sea control. This recent post brought some interesting discussion on the roles of submarines, including the usual debate on purchasing SSKs vs. SSNs.
One of the important missions for subs in both wartime and peacetime is ISR. See this article for a good explanation of this and other sub roles. Mainly, "the unique look-angle provided by a submarine operating in the littoral region enables it to intercept high interest signal formats that are invisible to reconnaissance satellites or other collection platforms." Submarines bring two primary traits to intelligence collection operations: stealth and persistence. There may be another, even more affordable way to bring additional sub-like ISR capabilities to the US Navy than acquiring SSKs. The above photograph is the AN/WLD-1 semi-submersible autonomous vehicle/Remote Mine hunting System with attached AQS-20 (inside the mission bay of LCS-2). The system’s low profile, endurance, and remote operating capability could be married to submarine mast sensors to enable surface ships - LCS, HSV, or practically any combatant. The system can also be launched and controlled from the shore, which would work in some situations to surveil coastal areas. The “black boxes” and ISR dissemination infrastructure is already in place.
One of the important missions for subs in both wartime and peacetime is ISR. See this article for a good explanation of this and other sub roles. Mainly, "the unique look-angle provided by a submarine operating in the littoral region enables it to intercept high interest signal formats that are invisible to reconnaissance satellites or other collection platforms." Submarines bring two primary traits to intelligence collection operations: stealth and persistence. There may be another, even more affordable way to bring additional sub-like ISR capabilities to the US Navy than acquiring SSKs. The above photograph is the AN/WLD-1 semi-submersible autonomous vehicle/Remote Mine hunting System with attached AQS-20 (inside the mission bay of LCS-2). The system’s low profile, endurance, and remote operating capability could be married to submarine mast sensors to enable surface ships - LCS, HSV, or practically any combatant. The system can also be launched and controlled from the shore, which would work in some situations to surveil coastal areas. The “black boxes” and ISR dissemination infrastructure is already in place.
Modern nuclear submarines are very expensive, but worth every penny. However, it is unlikely that near to mid-term acquisition budgets will be able to increase the size of the force much, if at all. Rather than moving to less capable diesel subs, modifying some WLD-1s for ISR duties would allow our SSN and SSGN forces to focus on other missions.
The opinions and views expressed in this post are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense, the US Navy, or any other agency.
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