Sub Director Foresees 'Revolutionary' Power of SSGNs

Rear Adm. Paul F. Sullivan is director of the Navy's Submarine Warfare Division during a period of fundamental change in the submarine fleet. Only a few years ago, submarine strategists were forced to explain to the Navy and the Congress how their fleet, designed principally to chase Soviet subs, could be relevant in the post-Soviet era. Today, submarine forces have broadened their operational relationship with special operations forces, begun the conversion of four Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic-missile (SSBN) submarines to a tactical guided-missile submarine (SSGN) configuration, and vastly improved their ability to communicate with other units in the Navy's strike groups. Sullivan says the SSGNs alone will place "revolutionary" capabilities in the hands of the nation's combatant commanders. As director of submarine warfare, Sullivan handles submarine capital requirements and resource issues for the chief of naval operations. He has been commander of the fast attack submarine USS Birmingham and the Trident sub USS Florida. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Sullivan, who previously was director of plans and policy for the United States Strategic Command Staff, recently was named to serve as commander, Naval Submarine Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

The submarine force has undergone some radical changes since the mid-1990s. What are they?

Sullivan: Near the end of the Cold War, we were clearly a dominant force focused on a single potential conflict with an enemy, the Soviet Union. At the end of the Cold War, we had to explain why the submarine force would be relevant in the new world we found ourselves in. There would be smaller conflicts with a diverse array of adversaries. A lot of the potential conflict would be ashore. How would the undersea service support the joint warfighter hundreds of miles from the shore?

Had we continued to do business as before, we would have ceased to be very relevant. I was a [sub] commanding officer at that time. The mission was focused and, when you deployed, you knew where you were going to go. You knew fairly well what your mission would be and what type of things you were apt to do. You would bring back the information you gathered. Two months later, maybe three months later, it would go into the military intelligence environment, where it would be analyzed maybe within a year or two years.

We were in the same situation as some of the top corporations in the country: Yes, you had a great product. But if the customer doesn't want or is not going to use it, you are on a death spiral.

We were forced to explain why we should even continue to exist. Okay, what do we bring to the table in the post-Cold War era? In fact, there are lots of qualities that make us relevant in the new situation. Stealth has been our hallmark. Persistence is another important quality. We could be in an area and, over time, develop a long-term situational awareness and help prepare the battle area. For a submarine, the idea that you're there 24 hours a day, day in and day out, is a pretty powerful attribute as a platform. We can be out there as long as the food lasts.

These are important qualities, but ones that you long have had. What do you bring to the party that is new?

Sullivan: A lot of different groups looked at the submarine's role in the future. And it seemed clear that we had to take more weapons to sea. You also have to have a greater variety of payloads, not just the heavyweight torpedo and the Tomahawk missile. And getting payload on a submarine is no easy challenge.

We also had to take more sensors to sea that could go off-hull. We needed UUVs [unmanned underwater vehicles] and planing sensors on the bottom, those sorts of things, that would gather information. Probably the most important point is how do you communicate that information in real time or near-real time to allow other people who are not on the submarine to use it. That's where you get into, of course, the ForceNet concept, where you're on a net. You might be the recipient of information from somebody else, but you also provide your information to others to use. And we were, until recently, considered a disadvantaged communicator. The name Silent Service wasn't given to us by accident.

Did you make any of these improvements?

Sullivan: I feel very, very good about what's happened in the last couple of years. I'm really proud of our submarine force because they've operated submarines in places where we've never really gone before. That's the power of the submarine: to be there, unobtrusive, wherever there is potential intelligence.

Also, we have seen the marriage of the two premier stealth forces in the nation, special operations forces and the submarine force. We've worked very closely with the special forces. We once thought of special forces as a unit that is designed to go ashore and blow something up. But it's really more than that. They plant unattended ground sensors, things that measure vibrations, sense the atmosphere for potential weapons of mass destruction ... that sort of thing. You can get intelligence on the location of ground troops, for example. I think you'll see this marriage of these two forces really go forward.

What is really intriguing about the SSGN is the volume, the payload. [Four SSBN submarines are being converted to SSGN cruise-missile subs with up to 154 Tomahawk missiles and 66 special forces personnel].

A Trident submarine is pretty roomy. You could put an M1 tank in there if you could figure out how to get it vertical and put it in. The [launch] tubes are 84 inches across and four stories deep. So you have the ability to adapt a lot of payloads for it. You can put things like the Army's ATACMS [long-range tactical missile system with 950 bomblets in the warhead] in there. Just put it in a capsule that buoys to the surface.

The Giant Shadow experiment in January [with an SSGN] demonstrated that the submarine's situational awareness is improved a lot because of the SEALs [Navy special-operations Sea-Air-Land forces]. It was getting information from the net and from the SEALs. Also, the SEALs were dispatched on a simulated Advanced SEAL Delivery System [ASDS, a mini-submarine] and were getting information, data-size files, from the ship.

You can just imagine, over the next 20 years, the missions that the SSGN will perform. We can deliver different payloads via UUVs. We are going to use two crews, just like the Trident, so the operational availability will be about 70 percent. You could exchange crews in Diego Garcia [a base in the Indian Ocean] and, by stationing two SSGNS there, have more than 300 Tomahawks in-theater and ready to be used. I think this is going to be revolutionary.

How about better communications?

Sullivan: There is a very good news story that developed during the recent Iraqi Freedom operation. We had 12 U.S. submarines [in-theater], and we had two of the British submarines that launched Tomahawks. Of the 800 or so Tomahawk missiles that were shot, about a third of them were fired by those 14 ships. What really intrigued me watching this as a research sponsor was the ability of ... the high-data-rate antenna. All but one of our ships had that. It is a wideband antenna that allows you to be on the net and have the bandwidth to pass a lot of information.

They [the sub crews] were sitting there with four different chat rooms, real-time, all interconnected 24/7 with Command Authority [and with other subs]. When one sub had a firing problem, another helped with troubleshooting and getting the missile ready to launch. Someone asked, "Well, how do you possibly keep track of four different chat rooms?" The truth is that this generation can do their homework and watch TV and listen to music and talk on the phone all at the same time.

And now a lot of the attack submarines need refueling and maintenance. Over the next few years, you will have eight to 10 submarines in the yard at once.

Sullivan: We've worked very hard to minimize the time in the yard. We now have our 688 class going 120 months between each major shipyard availability. It used to be a lot shorter than that. Seventeen percent of the ship's life used to be spent in the shipyard. It's now down to 11 percent, and that's a significant amount of operating days.

Do you see fewer sea days ahead over the next eight years?

Sullivan: Sure. The available forces are going to be less because when the fuel runs out, the screw won't turn anymore. It doesn't matter what you try to do.

You retired about 18 percent of the fleet since the Cold War and recently have had a 30 percent increase in mission requests from the combatant commanders. How are you handling that?

Sullivan: The submarine force size came down pretty much in parallel with the rest of the Navy. But I would venture that every given submarine is a lot more capable than it was back when we had a hundred attack subs. We struggle every day with how do you decide collectively where we put our ships. We have 54 commissioned submarines ... and we can't accept every mission. So it becomes a broker-type situation. Does every mission request really require using a submarine? Is there some other capability that could do this mission just as well, if not better? And the answer to those questions, oftentimes, is yes. The other times the answer is no.

Can today's submarine force consistently locate, identify, and target the modern diesel-electric submarines operating in the littorals?

Sullivan: That's a complex problem. The oceans are not transparent. Finding any submarine anywhere is not a given. The littorals bring their own set of significant issues such as the impact of currents, the mixing of water. You have a lot more shipping and interference. It makes the acoustics both different and difficult. It's like trying to get across [Interstate] 395 in the middle of a busy rush hour versus being out in the open. The acoustic conditions make it not only hard to find [diesel-electric subs] but hard for your potential killing mechanism, your torpedoes, to do their job.

Clearly we're focused now on the diesel threat because that's the potential threat. Submarine proliferation in the last 10 to 15 years has been huge. They are exported from Russia, from Germany. Having a submarine in your fleet is a status symbol. It says you're a Navy that's taken seriously.

But when it comes to how good a submarine is as far as quieting, how well it's operated, that part, I'll tell you, is not a given. In our business it's not just how quiet the ship is but how good is the ship's crew.

We have a very structured program now. Our focus is on how we can find the diesel. The exercises are very disciplined. It's not only submarine versus submarine, but also how can we use the thousands of ASW [antisubmarine warfare] capabilities to understand how we can be better at this. They are not, in my opinion, "black holes" that are invisible.

But it's a top priority?

Sullivan: Yes it is. *