Subs vs. Carriers

"The myth that gigantic, 80,000-ton nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carriers are unsinkable is not believed by any serious naval officer or analyst, but it has become a deeply ingrained assumption in the American public consciousness," Martin Sieff argues in new series for UPI. The biggest threat to the Navy's 11 big-deck carriers and 11 small ones? Submarines. Especially China's.

He's on to something. As we reported earlier, submarines are by far the most powerful weapons for major naval warfare. And China is indeed growing its sub fleet at a healthy rate (although the individual boats themselves are mostly pretty shoddy). What's more, according to an officer aboard the USS Russell,

anti-submarine warfare is probably the most challenging mission a ship or strike group can perform, especially when done well. It involves nearly every asset and tactic you can imagine, as ships and aircraft perform a thorough and sustained search by listening with passive sensors and probing with active sensors, both electromagnetic and acoustic. From a ship's perspective, it also involves frequent aggressive maneuvering to prevent an adversary from developing a firing solution, and the maneuvering must be done without jeopardizing the towed array sonar and torpedo countermeasures trailing thousands of feet behind the ship.

But naval blogger Galrahn advises calm:

Rather than suggesting the aircraft carrier is no longer vital to the
U.S. Navy because it is vulnerable to submarines, something that has been true since before WWII, we agree with the analysis by Mr. Sieff in highlighting the risk to aircraft carriers today is greater than ever.
That isn't to suggest that what the Chinese are bringing to the table against U.S. aircraft carriers represents the highest threat aircraft carriers have ever faced ... the risk posed by Chinese naval power and submarine forces is no where near the level of danger faced by the U.S. Navy against the
Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Still, Galrahn points out, the Navy has heavily cut its anti-sub forces, so it's an open question whether our carriers are safe from submarines.

(Photo: Navy)