U.S. Navy Considering Adding Anti-Ship Missiles Back to Submarine Force

[Onkel Neal]

U.S. Navy Considering Adding Anti-Ship Missiles Back to Submarine Force

“For this audience, I’ll tell you we are considering that and we are taking some some steps to delivering that kind of capability to our submarine force and I can’t really say anymore than that,” he said.
The U.S. submarine fleet did use the UGM-84A Harpoon anti-ship missile but that Harpoon variant was retired in 1997. The current primary attack submarines is the anti-ship weapon is Mk 48 heavy torpedo and is limited in its range relative to anti-ship missiles developed and deployed with foreign navies.
In particular, Russian and Chinese submarines field a variety of anti-ship missiles with ranges that far exceed the Mk-48s.
For example, the emerging Chinese YJ-18 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, capable of launching from a People Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) attack boat has an estimated range in excess of 300 miles. Likewise, Russia’s newer Oscar-class attack boats field the supersonic P-700 Granit — known by NATO as the SS-N-19 Shipwreck — with a more than 300-mile range.

Never understood why they did away with them, seems like anything to make a platform for flexible and capable is a good thing.