U.S. Submarines: At the Forefront Of Innovation, Defense

By Sheila M. McNeill, National President

Keep your eyes on the Tango Bravo project. It is further evidence that our submarine fleets will remain on the leading edge of undersea innovation and continue to be a primary factor in the defense of our nation. Renowned for their prowess at strategic warfare, intelligence operations and antisubmarine tactics, our sub fleets are expanding their missions and delivering vastly improved capabilities to the fleet.

Tango Bravo is a technology demonstration project intended to lead to the design of a new attack submarine having all the capabilities of the Virginia-class boat, but would be half the size and built at half the cost (see article, p. 18). New sub designs inspired by Tango Bravo will make their way to the fleet over many years.

Some of the Navy’s more contemporary experimentation will be done aboard the USS Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class submarine with unique capabilities. Fitted with a 100-foot “multimission platform” section behind the sail, the Jimmy Carter will be utilized for research in special warfare, surveillance and other undersea domains. Delivered to the Navy in December, the Jimmy Carter also will function as a fully operational submarine capable of undersea warfare, surveillance and special warfare missions, with accommodations for up to 50 special operations team members.

Submarines are the original stealth weapon and for decades have been a primary intelligence tool of the United States. Most of their intelligence work is classified. But if past is prologue, the sub fleets will continue to perform superbly.

One of their more famous accomplishments was to tap the telephone conversations of top Soviet naval officials. Navy subs and frogmen in the early 1970s placed a recording device on an undersea cable in the Sea of Okhotsk that ran between the Soviet naval base at Petropavlovsk and land cables to the base at Vladivostok. Three specially modified subs, the USS Halibut, the second USS Seawolf and, later, the USS Parche, collected tapes from the recording device until 1981, when the operation — code-named Ivy Bells — was revealed by Ronald Pelton, a former National Security Agency analyst and Soviet spy. Nonetheless, Ivy Bells was one of the most successful intelligence operations in U.S. history.

Our fleet of Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines also is preparing for the future. Four of the 18 Ohio boats are being converted to guided-missile submarine (SSGN) configuration, each of which can be equipped with 154 Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles and more than 60 special operations troops. This conversion by the Navy is a brilliant transformational step that will provide combatant commanders with a broad array of new capabilities.

The Ohio-class submarines soon may take on yet another vital mission — as a basing mode for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) missile, a future element of the nation’s multilayered missile-defense system. The huge missile tubes of the Ohio subs easily would accommodate the large KEI. Armed with defensive missiles, submarines would be able to move close to an adversary’s launch sites, increasing the opportunity to shoot down an attacking missile in its initial phase of flight, reducing risks to our nation.

The Virginia class of attack subs provides a model for Congress to follow in the purchase of ships. The Navy’s block buy of up to six subs includes $45 million of incentives on each boat linked to production goals. But the purchase of one submarine per year is not cost effective. The Navy and Congress should quickly increase the production rate, providing taxpayers with better value for their money.

Submarines provide our nation with advantages that potential adversaries cannot match. They remain an integral part of our national security program and deserve the strong support of every Navy Leaguer.