Why Use Submarines?

To some the idea of using submarines in warfare might seem out of place. Aircraft carriers pack a deadly long range punch. Carriers along with thier Battle Groups are a sight that would detere just about anyone. Conflicts of late have been against terrorists, or nations with little or no blue water assets. So why bother with submarines?

A submarine operates unseen, and unheard. The submarine is and always has been the wild card in a conflict or potential conflict.  The leader of a group or rouge nation must understand that just becasue he sees no 96,000 ton carrier parked off his coast, it does not mean the power of the United States Navy can't hit him and hit hard.

A submarine's weapons are only part of the package. Modern war is based on information. Smart weapons are no good unless they know what or who to hit. A properly operated submarine can with little effort become a longterm platform by which a vast array of electronic information can be gathered. 

Communications can be monitored, radar locations plotted, the list is almost endless. It really does not matter that a nation has no coast line as the electronic fingers can reach about anywhere.

Being unseen, the submarine can deploy Special Warfare units. Like the submarine these commandoes can infiltrate harbors, beaches and even cities. Once ashore they can coordinate strikes by the submarine, or aircraft. Needless to say these special troops can also conduct acts of disruption to an enemy force, by whatever means ordered.

As an offensive platform the submarine is a cabable force mutilplier. Should a conflict arise, the on station submarine can employ the UGM-109 C commanly known as the TOMAHAWK Cruise Missile. Our submarines carry enough of these weapon in both torpedo tube lauched as well as vertcal launched missiles. Some OHIO class submarines who began life as ballistic missile submarines have been converted to carry TOMAHAWK missiles in the hundreds.

Submarines can also seed a waterway or harbor with various types of mines. Even the threat of mines is enough to cause an enemy to expend money and manhours to find the supposed mines and enven more time and effort to sweep them. Unmanned remote submarines can be deployed to search harbors for enemy mines.

I haope you begine to understand that the modern nuclear submarine does indeed have a place in the order of battle. It is also engraved in the submarine motto. Silent, Deep, and Deadly.