Gratuitous Fractures in Submarine World's Traditional Silence

Note:  Molten Eagle has emphasized some portions of quotations  with color and/or underlining:

( 1 ) 

Britain - Strategy Page |  10 SEP 16
Morale: How The Internet Cripples SSBN Operations

"In Britain the Royal Navy has found it impossible to attract enough qualified sailors to operate all its nuclear submarines, especially the SSBNs (nuclear powered subs carrying ballistic missiles). The reason is that SSBNs stay at sea for 90 days at a time wanting for a brief message to fire its missiles at pre-arranged targets. The problem is that too many otherwise qualified sailors and officers are not willing to spend 90 days without Internet access.  This shortage has already reduced the number of days British SSBNs can spend at sea."  

( 2 )  

U.S. - The Seattle Times Opinion by David Hall and Leonard Eiger | 27 SEP 16
Next president has a nuclear option: Scrap the program 

"HAVE you seen the Seattle bus ads?  They read: “20 miles west of Seattle is the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the U.S.” ...

One hydrogen bomb deployed from Naval Base Kitsap on Hood Canal could wipe out a large city like Seattle and make the land uninhabitable for centuries. Look up the presentation “One city, one bomb” to understand the devastating potential of modern nuclear weapons."

*******

The item below is not submarine-related. However, U.S. submarine aficionados may  appreciate the obvious contrast in: (1) The speed of removing Navy Bios for "loss of confidence" submarine COs with the still live link for the Rear Admiral mentioned below; as well as (2) The guilty plea of an *NCIS Supervisory Special Agent.

( 3 ) 

U.S.  - The FCPA Blog  | 16 SEP 16
Two new indictments in Navy's ‘Fat Leonard’ bribery scandal 

A total of 16 individuals have now been charged in connection with the scandal. Of those, 11 are current or former U.S. Navy officials.

Most of the Navy personnel have been charged with taking bribes from Francis in exchange for passing to him sensitive information about ship movements and schedules. Some were charged with lying to investigators about their relationship with Francis and his company.

They are:
*Admiral Robert Gilbeau
Captain (ret.) Michael Brooks
Commander Bobby Pitts
Lt. Commander Gentry Debord
Captain Daniel Dusek
Commander Michael Misiewicz
Lt. Commander Todd Malaki
Commander Jose Luis Sanchez
Petty Officer First Class Daniel Layug
*NCIS Supervisory Special Agent John Beliveau, and
Paul Simpkins, a former DoD civilian employee who oversaw contracting in Singapore.

*Gilbeau, Dusek, Misiewicz, Malaki, *Beliveau, Sanchez, Layug, and Simpkins have pleaded guilty.


Submarines are always silent and strange.

U.S. SSNs: Excellent S.W.O.T. Analysis

Background

U.S. Navy submarines have been the world's preeminent submarine force since WWII.

S.W.O.T. Analysis is commonly the paramount planning vehicle used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in major business ventures. Neglect at your civilization's peril the structured S.W.O.T. methodology's rigorous and advantageous application to military strategy. Critical parallels are intensely identical.  Submarines, even in the same class must not be identical, however.

Five Reasons Virginia-Class Subs Are The Face Of Future Warfare

The article linked in the above subheading should be elucidating only to average pedestrians without an insider's knowledge of the U.S.submarine force.  In fact, it is probably the most succinct and penetrating expose that I have ever read in the mainstream (well, in the business press, anyway). 

If the word “submarine” makes you think of undersea warfare and protecting surface ships, then you only have the Old Testament part of the story.  Modern attack subs do a whole lot more, like covertly collecting intelligence that can’t be obtained any other way, precisely striking distant land targets, delivering special operators ashore on secret missions, and the like.  The Navy has good reason not to talk about such missions in public, but because the Virginia program runs silent and runs deep in popular culture, most people don’t realize that it is more than just a very big and successful weapons program — it may be the face of future warfare.  

Four of the five "Reasons" Virginia class subs are expected to be "The Face of Future Warefare" have been advertised since before SSN-774 was launched almost eleven years ago.  In review, the four no-surprises are:

• Stealth 
• Endurance 
• Versatility
• Evolution

(read more about each reason in the link above)

Now, to be clear, the fifth reason should hardly be any real surprise to qualified U.S. submariners.  It is, in fact, just business as usual for our attack (SSN) submarine fleet:

(from July 15, 2011) "Question #4: Which of the USS Ohio (SSGN-726) class subs, if any, also has a bunker buster (MOP) capability? What, you thought all submarines of a class were identical and their capabilities accurately disclosed publicly by Wikipedia?" 

The Leverage Revealed

"When you combine the stealth, endurance and versatility of the Virginia class, the result is a genuinely unique combat system providing potentially decisive warfighting leverage against even the most capable adversaries.  It can deny the Chinese or Russian navies access to the sea, destroy targets deep in the Eurasian or African interiors without warning, and intercept the most sensitive communications of dictators and terrorists.  It can even potentially blunt nuclear attacks on the American homeland by destroying the sea-going strategic forces of other nations.  This is a form of leverage no other nation will be able to claim in future conflicts, due mainly to the fact that only America plans to field such a large and capable fleet of attack subs."

The Block V contract, scheduled to commence in 2019, will triple the capacity of each boat to attack targets ashore, further contributing to Virginia’s technological evolution. Leverage will proceed from the possible presence of any of the by then 40 stealth Virginia class boats, each of unique capabilities and unknown inabilities.

 

In other words, a potential enemy who even begins to imagine he may have detected a Virginia, will still not know for certain what capabilities he may actually have to confront.  Therefore, he must assume the worst case, and guess that he would even know what that might be!

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Navy Decides to Fish and Cut Bait

BACKGROUND

This phrase Fish or cut bait is an American colloquialism.

To cut bait means to stop fishing. It appears to have been introduced to the public consciousness, and may well have been coined by, US Judge Levi Hubbell. It came up in 1853, in a legal dispute over land ownership between US Attorney General Caleb Cushing and a William Hungerford.

FISHING

The Hood Canal is spanned by the Hood Canal Bridge (above), one of the world's longest at 6,521 feet, and the only permanent floating bridge constructed over saltwater.

...........................................................................

More significantly, the Hood Canal separates the Kitsap Peninsula and the Olympic Peninsula. The U.S. Navy's Naval Base Kitsap, Bangor Annex, is located on the eastern shore of Hood Canal. The canal contains several bays, the largest of which is Dabob. Most of Dabob Bay is a Naval Restricted Area, used by the submarines stationed at Bangor. Older sub sailors should note that Naval Station Bremerton was combined in 2004 with the submarine base at nearby Bangor and called Naval Station Kitsap. .......................................................................................................................

The Navy planning to test unmanned undersea vehicles in the Hood Canal. "Our purpose is to test the vehicles. We are testing the Navy's technology," said Diane Jennings, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport public affairs officer. ...........................................................................

CUTTING BAIT

Navy shows off unmanned submarine-detecting craft. The Navy demonstrated a new remote controlled boat (surface craft) that can hunt enemy submarines with no risk.

.........................................................................................

The stated purpose is to detect hostile submarines by sending the unmanned boats, equipped with sonar, to probe the nooks and crannies where subs might be hiding to ambush a Navy ship or a merchant vessel.

.........................................................................................

The first of the two boats, developed and stuffed with sonar-detection gear, cost $197 million.

...Each aluminum-hulled boat is 39 feet long, weighs 17,000 pounds and can carry up to 5,000 pounds of intelligence-gathering technology while traveling up to 35
knots in rough waters. ...If all goes as planned, the first will be deployed in 2011, possibly to the Persian Gulf, where the Iranian navy says its submarines, lurking undetected, could close the Strait of Hormuz, through which tankers carrying much of the world's oil supply travel.

Got that? - Detection gear valued at $197 Million. That's more than the reward currently offered for Bin Laden, by the way. Does the navy hope someone comes after the technology so they can blow them out of the water? Very tempting to terror types, and M.E. hopes just as deceptive with patrolling helicopters, etc.