The U.S. Navy Needs Diesel-Electric Submarines Now

The following is a dramatic reading and video presentation of recent 19FortyFive article by Dr. James Holmes from the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, RI.

Summary: SSK acquisitions would promise not just capable and affordable platforms but a diplomatic boon. Indivisible alliances stand the best chance of weathering peacetime strategic competition as well as hot war.

Japan’s Soryu– and Taigei-class subs are acclaimed the finest large conventional attack boats in the world.

If the U.S. shipbuilding sector is under severe strain, and it is, it makes sense to turn to major shipbuilding nations that happen to be longstanding and loyal allies.

China may be the world’s largest shipbuilder, but the next two largest are Japan and South Korea. Together they slightly eclipse China’s shipbuilding capacity. One imagines, say, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which produced the Soryu and produces the Taigei, would be receptive to the idea of laying keels for the U.S. Navy.

Construction could take place either in Japanese yards or under some arrangement to manufacture them in North America. It’s worth at least making the inquiry to probe interest. Let’s buy foreign!

[RedSinter]

This is and has been a good idea from my perspective for at least 10 years. As they have not just as you've addressed, but also as a coastline buffer IMO. Also including potential for Mid Atlantic or Pacific patrol if builders account for a modular design in keeping with the coming to scale batteries with greater density and overall performance.

[kevlar]

Navy Hi Lo mix makes alot of sense.
We should be using Batteries in these instead of BS EVs.

[sammcbride]

I would rather have much more smarter torpedoes than the small submarines that the fleet would have to slow down for. We buy a ton of Japanese products. Cars. We do not have to worry about a military alliance based on a diesel submarine. We have also given them the ability to keep producing planes that we do not want to continue.

[DerekJones]

As a former submariner myself, I would tend to agree. We really need to build more shipyards on the West Coast and the Pacific Island chains. We don't lack resources or manpower. We lack willpower. We should allow West Coast states and protectorates to supplement federal funding since the East Coast monopolies are unwilling to provide adequate protection for the Pacific Rim. We out here understand the Chinese, Russian, and North Korean threats better since we are now within range of their ballistic missiles and naval assets. We haven't forgotten the lessons of 1941. We're actually in a worse maritime situation than we were then. We need ships and yards spread out so that today's early warning systems can provide the ability to respond in kind when this new axis of evil decides they are ready to attack. It's no longer, as D.C. thinks, a matter of if, but rather when!

[AdmiralYeti]

We need to build subs with expendability in mind. We can’t afford to get into a shooting war with an opponent who won’t hesitate to sink multi-billion dollar hardware given the opportunity. We need to start thinking in terms of cheap and replaceable.

[johndewey]

We should do what makes strategic sense and tactically feasable to support our allies and our military doctrine.

[onetruekeeper]

Switching to diesel makes sense now that we know that neutrino emissions from a nuclear powered sub can be detected from very long distances which makes stealth difficult.

[sneakyrat]

Just make the ships drones, humans are limiting factors in any equation.
A plane without a human can fly long and handle more Gs. A Sub without humans no longer has a food requirements either.


Also all these comments about diesel support, how do you think these subs charge their batteries? You can't have a stealthy ship when you have to charge those batteries by surfacing every single time 😂