EDITOR’S COMMENTS
Several of the excellent presentations at the two Naval Submarine League symposia this year are featured in this issue for the benefit of those who could not attend, and for those who did and have asked for the information to use in their conversations and speeches. Each of the five given here address a different facet of the problems facing the submarine community today.
COMSUBLANT, Vice Admiral George Emery, provided an overview to the Annual Symposium in June while John Birlder of RAND presented the results of the SecDef-ordered study on the submarine industrial base issue. Rear Admiral John Mitchell, then Director of Strategic Systems Programs, gave an SLBM status report and his views on the issues being faced by the strategic submarine force. The latter part of his talk contained what may be new information to many and is published here. Rear Admiral Marc Pelaez, the Chief of Naval Research, keynoted the Technolo-gy Symposium with a wake-up call to the submarine community about the funds available and what has to be done with them. Finally. Richard Compton-Hall, recently retired as Director of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, offered some wide-ranging western experience to a mythical nation interested in starting an effective submarine force.
A pair of articles about the early days of U.S. submarining should be of great interest to all history buffs. More importantly, they are recommended to those just getting started in the subma-rine business for the insight they can gain. Captain Harry Caldwell has put together a concise piece on John Holland’s success in building the U.S. Navy’s first submarine. The author is the expert on this subject since his father was the first com-manding officer. Dr. George Weickhardt offers us a well researched article, similarly very familiar to him, about the career of Admiral Nimitz as a young submarine officer before World War I. Dr. Weickhardt’s father served with Admiral Nimitz putting SNAPPER (SS 16) in commission in 1910.
Of more current interest is Commander Sam Tangredi’s first part of a two-installment article about the place of the Secretary of the Navy in the evolution of submarines. He makes the point that a SecNav can use his position to be an advocate and a shield for the service as well as a translator for the President.
Two other articles discuss developments over the last few decades in order to focus on submarine capabilities that are, or could be, of great use in the near future. Dr. Brad Becken, of Raytheon, but of long previous naval experience, summarizes the history of submarine underwater communications and raises the issue of its further development. Lieutenant Commander Sean Filipowski, a submarine-trained officer now serving as a cryptologist, recounts the participation of submarines in the Korean War of the early 1950s and shows how submarine surveillance came to be so fully accepted by theater commanders.
The unique relationship of submarine and intelligence is expanded further in Captain Bill Manthorpe’s review of Ultra in tbe Pacific. The review itself is recommended for what it says about both the development of tactical intelligence from raw material, and the use of it by successful commanders. This is one of those instances in which the review is more instructive than the book.
Two continuing series in THE SUBMARINE REVIEW are ably represented in this issue. The Submarine Bibliography project is well served with a pair of contributions which provide excellent listings of foreign language books and articles. For action there are not many sea stories that can top the account of TANG’s Fifth Patrol. Since the boat was lost, we have used Roscoe’s U.S. Submarine Operations in World War II for our commemoration of that battle 50 years ago, rather than an actual patrol report.
Jim Hay
FROM THE PRESIDENT
The 1995 Submarine Technology Symposium will be conducted on May 10, 11 and 12 at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The classified (SECRET/NOFORN) forum will examine a full range of emerging technologies that have the potential to be adopted by the Subma-rine Force. We will look at all Navy technologies, without regard to intended platform, and at the technologies under development at the Advanced Research Projects Agency and in other services. We will explore the world of modeling, simulation and automa-tion, and delve into adjunct and off-board systems. Acknowledging the fact that we (the good old USA) do not have a lock on advanced technology, the Symposium will review promising developments from overseas. The Call for Papers is on the street; prospects for an exciting meeting are great.
Traditionally, the exploitation of advanced technology has been good for the Submarine Force. Although initially embraced with some reluctance, the success of nuclear power confirmed the vision of its proponents. Science, meanwhile, has brought us power densities and extended core life beyond our wildest expectations. The solid rocket motor, accurate and reliable guidance, and precision navigation gave us the Fleet Ballistic Missile System. Stealth technologies have reduced radiated signatures to an undetectable whisper. And the computer allowed us to advance from the hand-held Is-Was to the wondrous combat control systems in the fleet today. But I have had a glimpse of the future, and it gets even better!
I was privileged recently with a walk through SEAWOLF (SSN 21) from bow acoustic array to shaft seal. The final hull sections had been joined, major equipments were in place, and the mass of metal was taking on the character of a real submarine. The torpedo room is cavernous. Standing in the midst of the space, one could visualize the ship forward-deployed, loaded with Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles, ready to launch, with a significant element of surprise, a strike against enemy command and control nodes, air defenses, and power grid, in response to direction from a Joint Task Force Commander. Just sitting on the blocks in the construction hall, the ship exudes awesome warfighting capability. I envy the youngsters who will take her to sea. My back-to-the-future experience included an exciting look at the AN/BSY-2 Submarine Combat System, Serial 001, under test, prior to delivery to the shipyard . The displays and controls reflect the considerable attention devoted to operability from early in the design phase, right to the present. The SEAWOLF crew is training on the system, putting real world flesh on a very powerful skeleton, and providing feedback to the engineers. The built-in capabilities represent everything you ever wanted in a combat system, and were afraid to ask. The fleet is in for a pleasant surprise.
My exposure to the AN/BQG-5 Wide Aperture Array Passive Ranging System was similarly exciting and took me back to USS BARB (SSN 596) and our primitive, but effective, 1966 era prototype PUFFS . Talk about Yugo vs. Countachl With additional experience and some tweaks to the operating guidelines, we should have a true littoral warfare detection and fire control system. Don’t leave home without one!
The paperless ship is upon us! The Interactive Electronic Technical Manual takes all of the heavy, burdensome, perishable, unmanageable in any sea state, of dubious ACN and page change validity, and space-consuming paper volumes, and reduces them to 3 .5″ floppy disks. The technician, armed with his own disk with A and C School notes superimposed on the text, carries a laptop to the scene of the problem and follows the electronic trouble shooting guide to resolution. Need to issue a change to the manual? Mail new disks to the fleet-throw away superseded disk . Training systems are now using the same format.
Add the new Photonic Mast System and high data rate Ku band satellite communications and imagery, stuff it into the New Attack SSN and we will have a weapon system with warfighting capabili-ty nnd survivability unmatched by any other platform. The submarine building program needs our support! It is time to dispel the myth that the submarine share of the Ship Construction, Navy (SCN) budget is fixed by historical perspective. Where is that written? We have a story that justifies a larger share of the pie! And maybe the SCN pie itself should increase relative to other appropriations. After all, this is the Navy, and we are talking about ships. Take off the gloves, men. It’s a jungle out there! The Marquis of Queensbury rules are N/A. Support your local neighborhood submarine!
Bud Kauderer
