Subs in the GWOT
The Global War on Terror has gelled as a bloody slugfest in which information is power and perceptions are everything. Many terrorist activities take place in or near coastal population centers, span littorals, and transit oceans and seas. This new type of fighting - assymetric and amorphous - has required the constant updating of traditional submarine missions and the definition of whole new missions. Many of these taskings were virtually unheard of in their present guise as recently as 2000, but now are increasingly commonplace. And beneath a cloak of deep secrecy, the Silent Service brings home the bacon time after time. The proliferation of modern diesel boats, some equipped with air-independent propulsion, has shifted the emphasis of anti-submarine warfare in the early 21st century. The strenuous perfecting of the difficult shallow-water and blue-water ASW tasks continues apace, not only to protect our military and commercial shipping assets underway, but also to prevent terrorists and rogues from traveling from their littorals to our littorals. Cooperative multi-national exercises demonstrate that the best weapon against an enemy diesel sub continues to be an American nuclear sub. Because the opposition in the war against terror consists of sub-state and trans-state bad actors,…
[From Subs in the GWOT]