Submarine warfare tactics and historical development

Submarine Warfare

Evidence of a submersible craft dates back some 2,000 years. According to Aristotle, such a type of submersible chamber was used in 332 B.C., and were used during the blockade of Tiros by the sailors of Alexander the Great in order to place obstacles and type of charges of unknown kind (Sevigny). Although records do not actually state that he had a submersible vehicle, legends say he descended in a "device" that allowed light and kept its occupants dry (Saga). Wall paintings found in Egypt depict duck hunters holding bird spears stalking their prey beneath the surface by breathing through hollow papyrus reeds (Saga). It is said that the Athenians used divers to clear the harbor entrance during the siege of Syracuse (Saga).

In 1578, former Navy gunner William Bourne designed the first recorded underwater navigational craft. It had a wooden framework bound in waterproofed leather and was to be submerged by employing hand vises that contracted the sides and decreased the volume (Saga). His design was never built, but a similar craft was built in 1605, however during its first underwater trial it became stuck in the river bottom (Saga). In 1620, Cornelius Van Drebbel designed the first practical submarine, a rowboat covered in greased leather. While rowers pulled on oars that protruded through flexible leather seals in the hull, snorkel air tubes held above the surface by floats, allowed the craft to remain submerged for several hours (Saga).

In 1776, Yale graduate, David Bushnell designed and built a submarine torpedo boat. This one-man craft, powered by a pedal-operated propeller and armed with a keg of powder, descended by admitting water into the hull and then surfaced by using a hand pump to pump the water out (Saga). In 1801, another American, Robert Fulton, successfully built and operated a cigar-shaped submarine, Nautilus, which was driven by a hand-cracked propeller when under water and a kite-like sail when surfaced (Saga). In 1850, William Bauer built a submarine in Kiel, the first of which sank in 55 feet of water. However, as the craft was sinking, Bauer opened the flood valves to equalize the pressure inside in order to open the escape hatch (Saga). When the water was at chin level, his crewmen "shot to the surface with a bubble of air that blew the hatch open" (Saga). Years later, this simple technique was rediscovered and used in modern submarines' escape compartments that operate on the same principle (Saga).

While these early crafts were little more than experimental models, and were occasionally used as a weapon of desperation by states with weak navies that offered no real threat to major naval powers, today's submarines are "deadly ship-killers, striking by stealth and often escaping without being detected" (Submarine). It is a fact of modern naval doctrine that the "flaming datum" is often the only clue that a hostile submarine is in the area. The ultimate expression of this capability is the nuclear attack sub, however simple diesel-electric attack subs, small coastal boats and tiny midget craft all offer the same advantages: stealth, surprise, and powerful weapons (Submarine). Moreover, submarine warfare can stop commerce and bring a country to the edge of economic ruin. They can deny a sea area and/or cause considerable losses on naval forces in a region (Submarine). Yet, there are numerous ways, ranging from simple measures to highly complex integrated systems, in which submarines can be detected, tracked and attacked (Submarine). Antisubmarine capability is a basic need of all naval forces, in fact, submarine and antisubmarine warfare is in many ways a contest of detection systems and detection-avoidance techniques as much as competition of weapons systems and tactics (Submarine). It has been described that duels between submarines and anti-submarine warfare forces "resemble a knife-fight between two blindfolded men, who must listen carefully, more furtively, and strike without warning" (Submarine).

According to Rear Adm. Henry Ulrich, the director of surface warfare in the office of the chief of naval operations, the United States Navy has set plans to bring anti-submarine warfare, ASW, to the forefront in "a significant way" (Tiron). Demonstrations were planned for January 2004, which would look at off-board active defense in a littoral setting, while a second in May 2004 would examine acoustics and non-acoustics together with a moving area search, and a third in September 2004 would focus on active/passive distributive systems and non-acoustics (Tiron).

According to Navy officials, unmanned undersea vehicles play a major role in anti-submarine warfare and in mine detection. Unmanned systems will "augment manned platforms in every facet of operations on the ground, sea, air, and space, including information dominance and manipulation" (Adams). Chief of naval research, Rear Adm. Jay Cohen, said "The Navy is absolutely committed to all types of unmanned vehicles. First in space, then in the air, undersea and on the surface" (Tiron). As yet, unmanned undersea vehicle programs have not yielded useful war-fighting capabilities for the Navy, however the mine and undersea warfare office has a $1.5 billion budget for the next seven years (Tiron). An expert panel of defense technology has made several recommendations on anti-submarine warfare capabilities, which include "rapidly deployable, active/passive distributed fields to cover a full range of shallow and deepwater environments without frequent reseeding, non-acoustic sensors with long-endurance that can fly at low altitudes, tactical air vehicles and rapid-attack weapons" (Tiron). Longer term suggestions focus on an autonomous anti-submarine sensor system, "large-area, non-acoustic search capability against shallow submarines, long-range standoff ASW weapons and decoys or countermeasures" (Tiron).