081025-N-6553L-022 KITTERY, Maine (Oct. 25, 2008) Crewmembers of the Virginia-class attack submarine USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) line the boat during the commissioning ceremony at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. More than 3,500 people were in attendance at the ceremony, held at the Navy's first shipyard. New Hampshire is the fifth Virginia-class submarine, the first major U.S. Navy combatant vessel class designed with the post-Cold War security environment in mind. U.S. Navy photo by Jeremy Lambert (Released)From New Wars:
A while back I wrote in an editorial titled “An All Submarine Navy“:
If America were to suddenly lose her preeminent surface fleet of carrier groups in such a future conflict, she would still have an excellent and capable submarine force to carry the fight to the enemy.
It should give every citizen in this country no small relief that despite the alarming threats posed by cruise missile armed rogue states, as well as sea terrorists in suicide boats, that we have this unmatched undersea capability to fall back on whatever future Pearl Harbor might befall us. But don’t take my word for this, but also Navy CNO Admiral Gary Roughead:
“I love submarines,” he said Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Naval Submarine League.
Roughead said in a former job as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, he considered the undersea force his “killer arrow in the quiver,” and not a Cold War leftover as some perceived.
“As a commander in the Pacific you rely on submarines more than anything else,” he said. “There’s nothing that represents the ultimate in stealth like a U.S. Navy submarine.”
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My Comment: But future wars are not going to be fought like this.