Japan's entire wartime naval strategy
revolved around defending the end of
this blockade. The northern tip which
stretched from northern taiwan to the
japanese home islands. Barring the surprise engagement of a few
other allies the u.s navy may have to
cover the southern end of the blockade. To that end the american fleet combines
old concepts with new ones
and hopes they work together.
According to the u.s office of naval
intelligence the chinese navy in 2015
operated 57 diesel electric and five
nuclear attack submarines. Beijing's underwater fleet by 2030 could
be expanded to include 60
diesel-electric ships and at least 16
nuclear attack submarines. That's a lot of boats by comparison the
japanese navy operates 20
diesel-electric submarines and does not
plan to increase this force any time
soon. Japanese submarines are among the most
modern and sophisticated in the world
but they are outnumbered by their
chinese counterparts.
Meanwhile the u.s fleet has 56 los
angeles, Seawolf and Virginia-Class
attack submarines as well as Ohio-Class
cruise missile submarines. Under the latest planning that number
will drop to 52 attack ships by 2026
before expanding back to current levels
sometime in the 2030s. Worse still for american warplanes only
slightly more than half of these
submarines belong to the pacific fleet. In short china has more attack ships
than the enemy could possibly have even
if you add a few taiwanese and
australian ships to the last column.
Since one of the best ways to find and
sink enemy submarines is to send one of
your own the united states is at a
disadvantage in the underwater battles
that could occur in the early stages of
a war on say taiwan. The u.s navy aims to reduce its losses
by acquiring a large number of drone
submarines. In 2019 the shipping arm paid boeing the
first installment with a 275 million
order for five echo voyager unmanned
submarines. The navy calls the echo voyager version
an extra-large unmanned underwater
vehicle or XLUUV. the first autonomous XLUUV could enter
service as early as 2022.
The navy plans to acquire at least 24 XLUUV over the next few decades. Robot ships may eventually perform
multiple missions but mine mining is a
priority. According to vice admiral James Kilby deputy chief of naval operations
for warfare requirements and capability, we went after the vehicle because we had
an operational need from a combatant
commander to solve a specific problem. The XLUUV is a migration of boeing's echo
voyager with a mission module positioned
in its center to carry mines.
Kilby told the u.s house armed services
committee in march offensive mine warfare is not america's
strength the u.s fleet does not
currently operate a dedicated mine
laying vessel. Navy and air force squadrons have
recently begun to revive the practice of
dropping mines by air. XLUUV can speed up the restoration of
this century's old naval combat method. the plan it seems is to arm the 51-foot
drone with the Hammerhead, the so-called
encapsulated torpedo mine.
The hammerhead is basically a mark 54
torpedo in a housing equipped with sonar
and radio. The container was anchored to the seabed
once the operator activates it remotely
the mine listens for the enemy submarine
then launches its torpedoes up to 6
miles away. An XLUUV can apparently carry a dozen
mines, Hammerheads can be deployed in
traditional barrier minefields designed
to house red, enemy ships within their
ports or to deny them access to blue
friendly operations areas explains david
strahn an independent naval analyst.
Strawn details how a network of four
overlapping 600 square miles of Hammerheads can trap enemy submarines. The XLUUV can stay near mines effectively
allowing target submarines to detect
them and lure enemy ships into the kill
zone. The navy expects to complete work on
hammerhead by 2023 at which point it
could begin folding robot subs and
torpedo mines into its war plans.
If
china ever moves on taiwan and war
breaks out in the western pacific Japan
might surge its subs north of taiwan to
block chinese submarines. While in the
south of Taiwan, American drone subs
plant their own blockade.
