By James R. Holmes
By shifting its outlook on undersea combat, the U.S. Navy can restore that competitive dimension of war at sea.
Hey, get off my lawn, William Toti, you whippersnapper! Writing about submarine warfare belongs to me now!!!
Er. Forgive the outburst. Upon further review, it appears the Naval Diplomat is the whippersnapper this time. Captain Toti is a seasoned sub skipper, whereas I remain one of the Young Turks of maritime strategy, and a surface-navy sailor to boot. In any event, he has a nifty article in the current edition of the Naval Institute Proceedings, wherein he describes a new yet ancient approach to combat in the deep. Read the whole thing, then hurry back.
Toti recounts the U.S. Navy’s search for “full-spectrum” anti-submarine warfare over the past decade. His essay is noteworthy in several respects. One, he tries to shatter American seafarers’ assumptions about — and, at times, complacency toward — ASW, dating from the Cold War. For mariners of a certain vintage, hunting enemy boats is something we do in the open ocean. Detecting, tracking, and targeting the godless foe demands ever more discriminating acoustic sensors operated by savvy sonar techs. In this default view, Western navies should resume old practices using new hardware in order to compete with the likes of China and Russia.
Read the full story at The Diplomat