What is Wrong with These Images?

PHOTO  1

Explanation (An Upset Condition masquerading as business as usual):  CVN 77 was ordered 15 years ago (26 January 2001) and it has been only 7 years since its commissioning (10 January 2009).  Would not a better ordnance staging and handling system have been provided?  Is it really necessary for our sailors to be mired in such clutter aboard a relatively new aircraft carrier unlike on our submarines?

MENTAL IMAGE  2

 Quotation:  "In short, submariners will no longer be as exceptional as before. They’ll have to learn new habits. They’ll be more like surface officers, forced to train for active defense and counterattack for survival rather than trusting to invisibility. They’ll have to be more like aviators, operating squadrons of offboard craft to extend their combat reach. And subs will no longer be loners, sent forth to do great things in independent operations. In short, not just a technological but a cultural revolution is afoot." - James Holmes, Professor of Strategy U.S. Naval War College, February 16, 2017, The National Interest,  "Is the Age of the Submarine Over?" 

Explanation (A long lead-time forecast masquerading as a near-term paradigm shift) : What has really been afoot is a grand naval deception designed to encourage exhorbitant enemy spending just to maintain yesteryear technologies while the U.S. widens advantages in the superior performance of tommorow's technologies and tactics.  

Submarines are always silent and strange.

 

U.S. Navy's Advanced Tactics: Autonomous Swarming & Spoofing

Yesteryear

Molten Eagle first heralded the swarming concept in September of 2005.  Eleven years later the U.S. is closer to fleet deployment at will.  By 2013, ME had also realized and predicted that one of the best uses of AUVs was going to be spoofing enemy surface and submarine warships.

Although the U.S. Navy has yet to admit spoofing acoustic signals to mimic subs of foreign nations, this has been a useful practice for half a century.  The possibilities to decoy and to deceive (false flag) are practically endless. No navy wants to boast about such capabilities, however.

So as seas fill with costly subs from more nations than ever, operated by seamen (and women) with less experience than ever, and needing more refueling and in-port maintenance than U.S. nuclear subs do, advantage beneath the seas is assured in peacetime.  

But as foreign sailors eventually learn to operate their subs as quietly and safely as designed, the noises of age will begin plaguing their vaunted and costly vessels whether AIPs or nucs.  Overdue maintenance prematurely ruins missions with embarrassing tows back to port. Have you noticed how often tugs have accompanied foreign (even Chinese and Russian) subs far from their homeports?

The Future...

In wartime advantage will be leveraged by the abilities of U.S. surface vessels, aircraft and subs to launch specialized AUVs in overwhelming numbers.  Spoofing? Of course! But for now, read on to see only what IS admittedly available (video, also).

Submarines are always silent and strange.