Let Marines Fight Submarines
By Captain Karl Flynn, U.S. Marine Corps
February 2023 Proceedings Vol. 149/2/1,440
Following the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy’s antisubmarine warfare (ASW) capability declined because of the lack of threat once posed by the Soviet Navy. Since then, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) submarine force has steadily grown in quality and quantity over the past three decades and is now fielding modern submarines with more capabilities. The PLAN will soon have more submarines than the U.S. Navy. While many of China’s older submarines are less capable than their U.S. counterparts, the Navy must maintain a global presence while the PLAN can keep its focus closer to home. To counter the PLAN threat, the Navy must revitalize its ASW capabilities by leveraging new capabilities currently undergoing testing and development by the Marine Corps.
The Carrier Strike Group: A Penetrable Defense
The submarine threat is nothing new: During World War II, submarines sank 15 carriers. While modern ASW capabilities have greatly improved, modern submarines and their armaments also have become much more capable than their World War II ancestors. A single modern heavyweight torpedo detonating under a ship’s keel could cripple even a supercarrier. The Navy took this threat seriously enough that it had planned to field an antitorpedo hardkill system on its supercarriers. Ultimately, only a few carriers were equipped with the antitorpedo system, and all have since been withdrawn from service.
Of course, a carrier strike group has more defensive measures against submarines than a last-ditch antitorpedo defensive system. Beyond its ASW-capable surface escorts, a carrier strike group also incorporates ASW aircraft. These, however, have atrophied. The S-3 Viking was the Navy’s last carrier-based fixed-wing ASW aircraft. The last S-3 carrier squadron was disbanded in 2009 with no replacement in sight, leaving carrier strike groups with the MH-60R Seahawk as their only organic ASW aircraft for the foreseeable future. The P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is a highly capable ASW platform, offering far greater range, speed, endurance, and payload than the Seahawk. However, since it is land-based, it has its own disadvantages. In addition to the transit time required to reach enemy submarines, the Poseidon’s air bases would be lucrative targets for Chinese land-attack cruise missiles launched by ships, submarines, or the H-6 bomber, as well as conventional ballistic missiles.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2023/february/let-marines-fight-submarines
