By Geoff Fein
The question as to whether submarines are still relevant in today’s post Cold War environment can easily be answered by looking at the number of countries obtaining submarines, a top Navy official said.
Rear Adm. Cecil Haney, director, Submarine Warfare Division, recently took a trip to South Africa where he saw that country’s new Type 209 submarine. Haney said he asked a South African naval official why they were investing in submarines.
“Their answer to me was, ‘when you submerge it, it has a strategic value no matter what we do with it to our neighbors, and that’s why we like the submarine,'” Haney told Defense Daily in a recent interview. “It is interesting the investment a number of other countries have made in this business. Not only for that strategic value, but for that capability of being forwardly deployed where you need to be and also being able to sample the battle space environment, not just at sea, but inland.”
Haney added he is amazed at how submarine technology proliferates. “There are some 40 nations with some 400 submarines out there.”
“When you talk about the full spectrum of warfare, the various phases of that, from preparing the battle space by knowing it all the way to engaging in hostilities, clearly today [submarines] have a role through that in the variety of different conflicts…just through my short lifespan in the Navy,” he added.
But the Navy’s submarine program faces some challenges. One the Navy pays close attention to is where the service needs to be in the future for capability. “[I] hope and pray we get it right in terms of things,” Haney said.
“I think there is a lot of good work going on in that environment. That is always one that any great nation has to be mindful of for its own survival in terms of future threats and current threats,” he said. “Do we have the right approach? Are we creating the effects that will be long lasting?”
There are lots of examples, Haney said, from the ability to provide time-critical strike to the business of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) capability.
In the area of anti-submarine warfare, where a submarine has to be able to classify a target, be able to know where to shoot at, and ultimately get ordnance on target, the Navy is seeing a lot of advances in technology, Haney noted.
“When we look at what we have done, just in my career, of being able to understand the acoustic environment and both apply it from a sensor perspective to the business of the actual weapons, in our case the MK 48 ADCAP (advanced capability) and the CBASS (Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System) torpedo, and have it operate effectively in the shallow water, littoral complex environment. That’s the kind of thing I am excited about and how we have gone into that capability,” Haney said.
Another emerging technology for submarines is the incorporation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
“The business of being able to take a submarine like the Montpelier (SSN-765) that very recently came back from deployment…that actually carried for the first time in my life UAVs on board. To be able to have that kind of capability…to sample the battle space in that regard, you definitely look at that,” Haney added.
Submarines today have also moved away from the notion of being lone wolves to being connected, Haney said.
“Today we are connected and there are improvements [being made] in that particular world and our investment in the common submarine radio room, for example…that piece makes us even more effective as a team player, as a real-time part of that kill chain particularly as you look at time critical strike,” Haney explained.
“It’s not just the submarine as the lone ranger. We are combined with other assets, netted in, so we can in fact understand the rest of the picture…having more theater-wide ASW effect,” he added.
There are ongoing initiatives in technology as well as from the fire control and sonar systems to the actual sensors themselves, Haney said.
“If you look at what the Virginia-class has from the wide aperture arrays and what have you [with] the towed arrays we can carry,” he said. “The other example I would give, as I look at just how we fight and train to maintain that proficiency…our ability to do onboard team training in the control room, and really work our parties together whether we are at sea or sitting in port,” Haney added.