Military

Submarine Development Squadron TWELVE

Submarine Development Squadron TWELVE is located in building 3 at Naval Submarine Base New London. Squadron TWELVE is tasked as tactical development authority for Submarine Forces Atlantic and Pacific. This is a unique responsibility which is dedicated to the formulation and improvement of submarine tactics and to the measurement of the effectiveness of the newest submarines.

Beginning in the 1960s many of operational and analytical activities continued to be centered in SubDevRon 12 (formerly known as SubDevGru 2). DevRon 12 was the home of the Tactical Analysis Group (TAG), played a major role in the "Big Daddy" exercise series, and its submarines were also assigned many forward intelligence missions.

The TAG was set up to develop analytical techniques for analyzing exercise results and use them to predict operational performance. Big Daddy was an annual, SSN versus SSN ASW exercise which the submarine force used in part to develop and validate the models developed by the TAG. These models could then be used in war planning, in setting force requirements and to assist in the design of new systems. Big Daddy and TAG were key tools for the Navy to use in convincing both itself and the national leadership of the viability of its ASW posture. The TAG also developed into a formidable tool for justifying new submarine development to the civilian leadership, particularly in the years the Office of the Secretary of Defense was infected with enthusiasm for the quantitative methods first introduced by Robert McNamara in the early 1960s. In this capacity, the TAG played a major role in the justification for the Sturgeon, the first SSN class produced in large numbers.

DevRon 12 also played a major role in the introduction of new sensor technology. Part of its charter was to test new equipment, but because it also had an operational role, these tests often occurred in real world operations. Once the value of an experimental system was established in this way, it tended to be retained for further use in the DevRon, rather than returned to its manufacturer for further development. This low level melding of the technical and operational communities provided an informal path for new technology like LOFAR and the towed array to be inserted into the submarine force.