Diesel Submarines: The Game Changer the U.S. Navy Needs

[Onkel Neal]

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/bu...vy-needs-31827

Among the more-than-ample reasons for acquiring a flotilla of diesel-electric submarines for the U.S. Navy: SSKs could help deter war by demonstrating American resiliency should war come in the Western Pacific. Deterrence comes from capability and visible resolve to use it. And from staying power. Foes blanch at starting a fight if they fear they can do little to blunt an antagonist’s warmaking capability. In short, resilient contestants deter. And should war come anyway, an artfully employed diesel contingent could help the United States and its allies—principally Japan—prevail in that war.

An allied sub squadron wouldn’t need SSNs with breakneck speed and unlimited underwater endurance to defend a static island perimeter. SSNs excel at open-ocean combat, but they represent excess capacity and expense—and thus waste—for sentry duty. A U.S.-Japanese squadron would need subs to man the barricade in concert with surface craft, missile-armed troops on the islands, aircraft roving overhead, and well-placed minefields. Picket subs thus need to hover silently and stealthily along the island chain, awaiting their chance to strike.

Diesels can do that. The alliance needs enough sentries to keep up a constant rotation, assuring enough subs are always on guard, along with a reserve to shore up the line when vessels are lost in action. A U.S.-Japanese sub fleet would boast enough hulls to keep up a rotation along the Ryukyus. The JMSDF gets by with nineteen boats after a modest buildup, but the leadership wants more. Add a dozen or so American boats to the combined order of battle, and you’d have an undersea fleet able to hold the line with enough units to spare for offensive missions such as raiding shipping within the Yellow or East China Sea or the Sea of Okhotsk.

[ET2SN]

SSNs with breakneck speed and unlimited underwater endurance

Trust me, the Navy and the Pentagon like this part.

I was one of the last guys to serve on both types, we ain't going back.

[Cybermat47]

In 2000, one of our Collins-class diesel-electric boats managed to “sink” two USN nuclear boats and get in range of a Nimitz. The diesel-electrics still have their place in a modern navy.

If America goes back to making diesel-electrics, they need to name the first one Tang

[Mike Abberton]

The chances of the US Navy purchasing a weapon platform that they can't staff,
would need to develop an entirely new logistics train for, can only realistically base at foreign nation's ports to be useful, and only buy from a foreign nation for the 10-20 years it would take to get US production of a replacement on line, seems extremely unlikely to me.

Mike

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by Mike Abberton

The chances of the US Navy purchasing a weapon platform that they can't staff,
would need to develop an entirely new logistics train for, can only realistically base at foreign nation's ports to be useful, and only buy from a foreign nation for the 10-20 years it would take to get US production of a replacement on line, seems extremely unlikely to me.

Mike

Ding!
You win the cookie.

[Penner10000]

What kind of Submarine is on the picture?

[U56]

My guess is Japanese Navy Soryu's.

[ikalugin]

US has allies to take up the SSK missions.

[Christopher Snow]

Well, maybe it's easier for me to spot because I happen to have a big monitor and I'm close to it, but that sub is flying two Japanese flags. So take your best guess?

[sonicninja]

The Royal Navy went down this route with The Upholder/Victoria-class submarines in the 1990's, also known as the Type 2400 (due to their displacement of 2,400 tonnes), they were diesel-electric fleet submarines.

The Royal Navy was going to follow the Oberons with nuclear-powered boats but there was still a role for diesel powered boats, as demonstrated by activities during the Falklands War, and they could be built faster than nuclear submarines.

The first of the class (Upholder) was ordered in November 1983 and completed in 1990, and there followed three more boats (Unseen, Ursula and Unicorn) ordered in 1986 and completed in 1991-1993. The Royal Navy had planned to order 12 of the class, but this was trimmed first to 10 and then to nine before being curtailed at four as part of the "peace dividend" at the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.
In 1998, Canada accepted the four Upholders as replacements for their old Oberons; initially with one to operate in the Pacific fleet and three in the Atlantic, but later two boats were assigned to the Pacific.

Source of info:- Seaforces.org

I personally never served on Diesels I was an SSN rating but the guys I knew that had served on DB's said they were great boats.

Originally Posted by Penner10000

What kind of Submarine is on the picture?

Originally Posted by U56

My guess is Japanese Navy Soryu's.

That is correct.

https://www.naval-technology.com/pro...classsubmarin/

[Mr Quatro]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

US has allies to take up the SSK missions.

If we build diesel submarines for Taiwan the chinese would get all out of shape. If we build submarines for Australia or Canada would be okay, but the years and money spent wouldn't make sense.

Mise well give them a couple of LA class refurbished boats and train their sailors.

India is the country I'm worried about ... they've now gone nuclear too, right?

Drones are the next defensive weapon ... especially buoy type of drones that can intercept pre-programed sounds.

[ikalugin]

Nuclear as in they produce nuclear submarines or as in they have nuclear weapons?

[U56]

[QUOTE=ikalugin;2570089]Nuclear as in they produce nuclear submarines or as in they have nuclear weapons?[/QUOTE

Both. India and Pakistan currently face off over Kashmir with a bunch of tactical nukes. India has leased nuclear submarines from Russia, and I think now has completed a domestic build one as well.

[Mr Quatro]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

Nuclear as in they produce nuclear submarines or as in they have nuclear weapons?

Nuclear submarines ... they don't build them do they?

They probably get them from russia ... all I know is what the front page of subsim says.