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An Assessment of Undersea Weapons Science and Technology (2000) / Chapter Skim
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3 The Future of Navy Undersea Weapons: Important Issues
Pages 38-43

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From page 38...
... The collapse of the Soviet Union fundamentally changed the nature of undersea warfare. During the Cold War the challenge was posed exclusively by torpedoes fired from relatively large nuclear submarines operating in the vast expanses of the worlds' oceans; in the future the primary undersea threat is more likely to come from smaller diesel boats operating in the constrained waters of the world's littorals and will include weapons fired from a variety of surface, air, and land platforms.
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From page 39...
... Unfortunately, detecting and localizing small, quiet submarines operating near the ocean boundaries at near-zero speeds with conventional sonars developed to operate in the open ocean against large nuclear submarines is technically enormously difficult. Current efforts to significantly improve frontend capabilities by incremental changes to extant systems show little promise, and alternative methods better adapted to the specific circumstances of the new threat mode are not being seriously pursued.
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From page 40...
... It would also require people skilled in analysis methodology and knowledgeable about system operations, enabling technology, and the use of key modeling tools. The Navy has a long history of evaluating its undersea warfare systems using mathematical tools.
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From page 41...
... The mission of this office was, among other things, to assess the existing and projected threat and ASW systems and to use that information to improve current fleet performance and to guide acquisition decisions. The effort continued under the sponsorship of the Chief of Naval Operations through the 1980s and culminated in the promulgation of ASW Top Level Warfare Requirements (ASW TLWR)
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From page 42...
... The end of the Cold War has unfettered European Community and former Soviet bloc arms manufacturers. They are now offering torpedoes, countermeasures, and undersea warfare systems to any buyer.
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From page 43...
... Next, the Navy should take advantage of the heightened concern about the undersea threat that would come from such a push and try to provide adequate funding. The funds should not only support the enlarged research program that would emerge from the concept studies mentioned above but would also have to underwrite the beginning of a future acquisition program.
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Key Terms

  • undersea warfare
  • weapons development
  • naval operations
  • undersea threat
  • littoral environments

  • constrained waters
  • product improvement
  • asw operations
  • concepts starts
  • weapon concepts

  • land platforms
  • warfare capability
  • asw tlwr
  • adequate funding
  • navy undersea

  • current undersea
  • fleet performance
  • weapons upgrades
  • weapons science
  • nuclear submarines

  • effort continued
  • submarines operating
  • naval studies
  • future undersea
  • asw top

  • mine countermeasure
  • diesel boats
  • industrial expertise
  • analysis methodology
  • vast expanses


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