11 Comments
User's avatar
Bryan Clark's avatar

Great point. We proposed one potential solution to create more ASW capacity in a study last year at https://www.hudson.org/research/16347-sustaining-the-undersea-advantage-transforming-anti-submarine-warfare-using-autonomous-systems.

jimc5499's avatar

Is the HSC community even current on ASW these days?

Randal Farley's avatar

The HSC community has no ASW mission. CSG logistics, FAC/FIAC defense, and they are stuck with operating the Firescout.

jimc5499's avatar

So who has inner zone ASW? I was in HS when it was our primary mission.

Randal Farley's avatar

The HSM community. The MH-60R is now the dipper - in addition to all the other stuff that the Bravo had. Airframes on the CVN and additional ones on the CG/DDGs in the CSG. All from the same squadron.

Mike McDevitt's avatar

My favorite sea story is gulf of Alaska ops on USS Cushing with four other ships and two dippers

Ken Mitchell's avatar

All valid points, BUT ALSO, there's a paltry few P-8 Poseidons that will never be able to replace 12 squadrons of P-3C Orions.

Jim Thur's avatar

As a tincan sailor who experienced considerable ASW with Task Force Alpha out of Norfolk in the 60s and around the world with DESRON 32, I concur that it is a small step forward. I do wonder if our SW community is properly trained to operate under these conditions. Anyway, I enjoyed the refamiliarization with "thermoclines."

Mark Davis's avatar

The two single biggest problems the US ASW community faces:

1. We have not sunk a submarine in 75+ years

2. We have not lost a ship to a submarine in the same 75+ years

nb - The Belgrano went down in short order, who knows how good their DC was, but just saying

Allen Snook's avatar

Does this mean we no longer have attack subs following the Russian boomers as they leave port? I thought that was the reason for all the subs we are building.