The Associated Press April 07, 2004
New command renews Navy focus on hunting submarines
By Sonja Barisic
The Navy is creating a command to strengthen its ability to hunt submarines, including quiet diesel-electric subs that patrol shallow waters and could pose a threat to U.S. forces in areas of conflict.
The Fleet Antisubmarine Warfare Command opens with a ceremony Thursday in San Diego. The command will be based there but will report to Fleet Forces Command on the other side of the country, in Norfolk.
About 130 military personnel, civilians and contractors will make up the command, to be headed by Rear Adm. John J. Waickwicz, who led U.S. forces in Iceland. The command includes detachments of 40 people in Norfolk and four in Yokosuka, Japan.
During the Cold War, the Navy was intensely focused on Soviet nuclear submarines, which operated in deep waters, said Bob Brandhuber, director of antisubmarine warfare improvement for the Navy's Pacific Fleet.
"When the Iron Curtain came down, the focus on ASW kind of atrophied" as the military concentrated on the Middle East, Brandhuber said Wednesday by telephone. "We were able to do ASW (antisubmarine warfare improvement) but we didn't focus on it as much."
Now the Navy is renewing its focus on ASW because many countries, including North Korea, India, China and Iran, have diesel submarines that stay close to beaches and are very quiet when they run on electric power underwater.
A potential adversary could use such subs to make it difficult for U.S. forces to reach a country, Brandhuber said.
"Our interests require that we have the ability to project power from the sea," Brandhuber said. "In order to do that, we need to be able to get (aircraft) carriers there. If a plethora of well-equipped, quiet diesel subs prevent that from happening, we're in a bit of a spot."
Lt. Cmdr. Michael Jensen, who is in charge of undersea warfare training for Fleet Forces Command, said North Korean mini subs have been found near South Korea and that North Korea is not the only country with such small, hidable subs.
"I don't believe we have the same threat of global thermal nuclear war that was present during the Cold War," Jensen said. "But that doesn't mean that one guy with whatever type weapon, with a chip on his shoulder, can't do something to do damage to us, either to our interests, our ships that happen to be out at sea, or to U.S. soil."
ASW involves many platforms, including surface ships, airplanes and submarines. Historically, those communities within the Navy did ASW in an individual fashion.
The new command integrates those elements, bringing together people from throughout the Navy who have ASW expertise. The intent is to make ASW more efficient and effective by identifying and fixing witnesses, bolstering strengths and eliminating duplication of efforts, Brandhuber said.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria research center on security issues, said such integration makes sense.
"That's a lot of dots to connect," Pike said. "That's what this command will do."
Pike said it will be difficult for those outside the Navy to assess how well the command is doing because ASW, for security reasons, is secretive.
One way to measure performance would be to look at how many Chinese submarines, for example, were tracked in a day, Pike said.
"You're not going to issue a news release on" how many Chinese subs were tracked in a day, he said. "That would tell the Chinese how successful they have been in hiding from us."
On the Net:
Globalsecurity.org site with information on Fleet Antisubmarine Warfare Command: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/faswc.htm
© Copyright 2004, The Associated Press
