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Kris Osborn writes at DefenseTech that the US Navy is outfitting a prototype Virginia-class attack submarine platform with a series of upgrades designed to improve sonar detection and make attack submarines less detectable and more stealthy with upgrades including the addition of a large vertical array, special coating materials for the exterior of the submarine and special noise-reduction technologies for the engine room. “The USS South Dakota is a platform for three crucial aspects of our efforts to work on acoustic superiority. The large vertical array is about 60-percent designed with a preliminary design and we are installing a similar array on the USS Maryland that is 75-percent complete,” says Rear Adm. Joe Tofalo, director, submarine warfare. Virginia-class submarines will be acquired through 2043, and are expected to remain in service past 2060. Mainly aimed at dominating the world's littoral and deep waters, the Virginia-class submarines are capable of conducting anti-submarine; anti-surface ship; strike; special operation forces; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; irregular warfare; and mine warfare missions. The idea is to stay in front of fast-moving technological progress on the part of potential adversaries and help ensure undersea dominance for the US Navy and provide a technological advantage to US submarines looking to operate beneath or behind barriers erected by the weaponry and sensors of potential adversaries.
Many countries such as China, North Korea and Iran have or are developing long-range anti-ship missiles designed to prevent surface ships from operating within a certain distance of the shoreline. These technologies and weapons could be intended to deny access or deny an area to US forces, making it much harder to operate and project power. “We need to be ready for a Russia, China, Iran or whoever else who – recognizing the superiority we have today – seeks to develop an A2/AD like network underwater to match what many of them currently have on the surface and in the air. We know that is going to happen,” says Vice Adm. Mike Connor, commander of the Navy’s Atlantic submarine force. "We are the folks who are expected to get in underneath and – at the time and place of our choosing – do what needs to be done. A significant part of our ability to do this is an acoustic advantage."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Sir Garlon on Tuesday November 04 2014, @12:29PM
Definitely just you.
Yeah OK invading Iraq was unnecessary and wrong but it you compare it, for example, to the Japanese occupation of Manchuria it looks downright humanitarian. The torture at the Abu Ghraib prison was inexcusable and there should be high-ranking officers in prison for it, but compare for a second to the Bataan Death March [wikipedia.org] and you will see a whole different depth and magnitude of atrocity.
Before you throw around comparisons between any modern country and the Axis powers, I suggest you take a moment to reflect on what the Axis powers actually did. Perhaps you need a refresher on history, or perhaps you've lived too long in the privileged West to be able to imagine what a real fascist state is like.
If the modern United States resembles any WWII power, it resembles the WWII-era United States. That is not intended as a compliment [wikipedia.org].
"We," meaning the United States government (which does not include me, and doesn't behave as I would like, so I don't claim to be part of it has a very long way to go before it becomes like the Axis powers. I will grant you it has been taking baby steps in that direction and need to turn around and start heading boldly the other way.
If you're referring just to military doctrine, then I don't agree there either. I reject the premise that the Axis relied on "wonder weapons" as the means to victory. The Germans for example had excellent tanks and aircraft, far superior to the Allies' at the start of the war. Their problem was that after the Allies had rolled up North Africa and Sicily, while simultaneously achieving air superiority over northern Europe and bombing factories and railways around the clock, the Germans could no longer replace or resupply their excellent tanks and aircraft and they just collapsed trying to defend three fronts. At that point, yes, there were a few advanced weapons Germany tried to field to hold back the tide. That's not how their strategic posture started. Their original plan was blitzkrieg: capture territory so fast there is no time to organize resistance, and rely on the other countries' lack of military readiness and political will to prevent them liberating Poland (or France) after it has fallen. It worked great in the short term.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @01:13PM
Unfortunately, you are wrong. Many around here have certainly made observations like this, but as you pointed out so well, they are wrong.
Aren't you aware we are living in the worst of times? Aren't you aware that your neighborhood police stations are worse than the Stasi? The pendulum swings between the US having a fascist defacto-king (we are in the fourth term of King GWB, after all), and being controlled by the shady oligarchy. The pendulum is certainly on the oligarchy side as it seems that a while ago someone read it on their Word-A-Day calendar and now it is de rigueur to toss that about if you want to sound "insightful". And pretty much every story, regardless of topic, now has to have input from all the armchair Henry Stimsons and Neville Chamberlains on the optimal intelligence and foreign policies the US should take.