THE THRESHER MEMORIAL
As a matter of interest, I have received some mail on the TIIRESHER article in the January 1991 REVIEW (all favorable). One letter was from Roy Anderberg, a NSL member and World War II submariner. He inquired about his old WW II Submarine, USS TORO, which had been slated to be sunk in the waters near the supposed location of the lHRESHER. Of course, the 1RIESTE found the TIIRESHER before the TORO sinking was necessary. The TORO was later sold and scrapped. Art Gilmore remembers that the TORO was painted with white stripes for purposes of determining dimensions in some sort of a visibility experiment in the Atlantic waters. I was able to send Roy copies of the pages about TORO from the Dictionary of American Naval Fi~htin~ Ships published by the U.S. Naval Historical Center of the Department of the Navy and Art Gilmore’s recllections.
Dan Crran
SOME MORE THOUGHTS ON UNMANNED SUBMARINES (UUV)
A major concern in reading Captain Lanning’s article “Some Thoughts on Unmanned Submarines (UUV)” in the July 1990 issue of the SUBMARINE REVIEW is the submarine’s lack of ability to launch and recover efficiently and tactically the menagerie of UUVs destined to evolve once the first autonomous UUV bas proven its worth at sea. The scenarios described by the author are closer to reality than many submariners realize as the persistent quest for UUV technology is pursued. The need for an effective launch and recovery system grows in importance.
As the author suggested, perhaps unknowingly, when he stated “submariners had best study the history of AIR WAR!”, a solution appears relatively near at band A concept named Submarine Lateral Launch System (SLLS) sponsored by DARPA recently finished hydrodynamic tests at David Taylor Research Center (DTRq using a tn scale SEA WOLF model in DTRC’s deepwater towing basin. Essentially, SLLS uses the same technology as the aviation community to eject weapons laterally from wing mounted weapon carriages. Phase I development testing of SLLS was completed and UUV launch and recovery was demonstrated successfully throughout a full range of tactical speeds. Hopefully, the Navy will pick-up the development of SLLS when Darpa lets go.
In summary, I continue to be amazed at Dick Lanning’s ability to get to the heart of the matter. Either by intuition or luck he describes the UUV situation correctly. Captain 0. V. Shearer, Jr., USN(Ret.)
