SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Could a Commerce Raider work on the modern Ocean? , What would it look like ?

Stealhead · 05-23-11, 11:53 PM

I would agree here even for a small country it would be more cost effective to operate a few modern diesel subs to raid commerce than to operate a raider.The down side of the raider is once you use it they will figure out that you have it and hunt it down I think it would also be hard to hide the fact that you had one prior to a war starting.

The submarine is the best weapon at hand for attacking commerce shipping because it can truly hide rather well.Another issue against a commerce raider in modern times is how do you hide your guns?In the old days this was very easy but in modern times FLIR systems would be able to see the heat being given off by a hidden weapon system not to mention that the raiders own radar which it would need to search for targets with would give it away as they know what it truly was by the RADAR beams it was sending out(you can tell alot about a radar system by its own beams).

I'd really say that WWII showed that any ship being a commerce raider wont be successful for very long the Germans famously even used warships in this role early in WWII and we all know how that turned out in the end.

The combatants would have to be two fairly small nations militarily speaking for a commerce raider to be viable and only be targeting locally owned shipping.The other issue is the rest of the would be concerned about their own shipping interests and have their own naval forces in the region to protect their interests.

05-23-11, 11:53 PM	#7
Stealhead Navy Seal Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Kentucky Posts: 5,421 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	I would agree here even for a small country it would be more cost effective to operate a few modern diesel subs to raid commerce than to operate a raider.The down side of the raider is once you use it they will figure out that you have it and hunt it down I think it would also be hard to hide the fact that you had one prior to a war starting. The submarine is the best weapon at hand for attacking commerce shipping because it can truly hide rather well.Another issue against a commerce raider in modern times is how do you hide your guns?In the old days this was very easy but in modern times FLIR systems would be able to see the heat being given off by a hidden weapon system not to mention that the raiders own radar which it would need to search for targets with would give it away as they know what it truly was by the RADAR beams it was sending out(you can tell alot about a radar system by its own beams). I'd really say that WWII showed that any ship being a commerce raider wont be successful for very long the Germans famously even used warships in this role early in WWII and we all know how that turned out in the end. The combatants would have to be two fairly small nations militarily speaking for a commerce raider to be viable and only be targeting locally owned shipping.The other issue is the rest of the would be concerned about their own shipping interests and have their own naval forces in the region to protect their interests.