The U.S. Navy

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Major

efforts are under way to ensure

,Mt the United States has nuclear-propel-

led

^attack submarine (SSN) superiority in

S_Q^e century. These efforts follow the ^Vlet Union having sent to sea several

]^0,^submar*^ne designs in the early the ''^y/’ Mike, Sierra, and Akula, and

Delta'

'the nuclear-propelled Typhoon,

•he g^0l)^nuc!^ear Kilo (followed in 1988 by ^en8in"

eluga¹). To Western naval officers, itii>^lneers’ ^an(J analysts, the most disturb- ^asP^ect of this intensive submarine ef- een

toise levels in new Soviet

fo

ated ^*^aS ^^ecn d^ecrease of self-gener-

l^arines, especially the Akula SSNs. i_ng ^e Chula’s noise levels are, accord- y_ear° °fflcial U. S. Navy statements, ten f_0r ^s ahead of what had been expected l98j^a Soviet submarine completed in c_aUs ‘ This situation is distressing be- subm ^{11 rcc}*^uces the long-touted U. S. iog ^arine advantage in submarine quiet- as well as superiority in passive

The

astic (sonar) detection, leveijf ^reve'^ation of the Akula’s noise

Mtis k^{3S WeP as} other Soviet submarine/ Co_n ^marine development has caused Planpl^f^{S to} *^ncrease its scrutiny of the Prog^

?^vclon

^neh Seawolf (SSN-21) submarine

dev_eJ^ani’ ^and to demand that the Navy Plan t ^{3n ant}‘^sub^nlar>ne warfare master niittee”¹⁶ ^^ouse Armed Services Com- 0v_e i also instituted a review of the atj_0n ^submarine/ASW technology situ- Ad\,_a’ ^anc* established a budget for the ITatn Submarine Technology Pro-

Sea_rch'^V^hin the Defense Advanced Re­late,. ^Pr°jects Agency (DARPA). The ^teachj ^aCt'^on eouM have the most far- dtari "8 impact on the U. S.-Soviet sub-

D_ARpf^{W situation}-

Ke_Se , ^{K Was} set up as the Advanced '957 ■ Projects Agency (ARPA) in •he .'he aftermath of the orbiting of ^sate|ij_t^Vlet Pinion’s first artificial earth «ci ^ ^e’ Sputnik-1. The first ARPA proj- ^sat_eiij^{as t0 esta}blish a U. S. space and ^so°_tl ⁶ Program, which the President ^setl^{t0 a c}*^v'l'^an agency (NASA). Md₆₍j ^aently, with the term “defense” l^acj _a ⁰ its title, DARPA became the kt'h _s^gCncy for the development of high­er mq^Stenis that were either premature '''••ial j ^ltar>’ service development, not of fterest to the military, or designed

for nonservice use (such as White House security). Recent DARPA submarine/ ASW-related projects have included the development of technologies for subma­rine laser communications, nonacoustic submarine detection (with emphasis on radar and optical techniques), the surveil­lance towed-array sonar system (SUR- TASS), advanced acoustic processing systems, and low-cost fiber-optic acous­tic arrays. Another recent area of DARPA activity is exploring the potential applica­tion of superconductor technology to sub­marines.

In the fall of 1987, Congress author­ized $112.8 million for a new DARPA Advanced Submarine Technology Pro­gram called “subtech.” The funds were to be used to explore advanced technolo­gies in hull, machinery, and electrical (HM&E) systems. On 13 April 1988, DARPA issued a formal solicitation “for new and innovative technology solutions in the areas of hull and design, mechani­cal and electrical systems, and associated platform support systems.”

DARPA’s submarine technology pro­gram was established under Dr. Ronald H. Clark, director of DARPA’s naval technology office, with Dr. Thomas Tay­lor as program manager. Navy Captain Mark Pelaez, previously an SSN com­manding officer, was assigned as the deputy program manager.

DARPA was flooded with hundreds of proposals. After several months of re­view and evaluation by the DARPA staff, with Navy assistance, virtually all of the fiscal 1988 funds were allocated for more than 50 analysis, technology develop­ment, and demonstration efforts. The contracts were awarded to a variety of firms, large and small, as well as to teams of companies and to Navy laboratories.

Congress followed the initial appropri­ation with another $95 million in the fis­cal year 1989 budget to continue the sub­marine subtech program. Although DARPA had requested continuing sub­marine technology funding in the fiscal year 1990 budget, it was deleted from the administration’s submission to Congress. Most observers believe, however, that Congress will add money to continue DARPA’s subtech efforts.

Components of the subtech program are intended to be shifted to the Navy, when deemed feasible, for advanced de­velopment. The shift to the Navy will be primarily through the Office of Naval Technology, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NavSea) and, especially, the Navy laboratory community. It is not clear how the Navy will assimilate the products of the subtech program. The recently completed congressionally spon­sored analysis on submarine and antisub­marine warfare states “the Navy estab­lishment—like many organizations of comparable size and age—is burdened with traditional, deeply rooted, and pow­erful vested interests that encumber inno­vation on the scale required” to counter Soviet developments.² The post of dep­uty chief engineer of the Navy for subma­rines (Sea-092R) has been established in NavSea, ostensibly to coordinate the input to the Navy of the products of DARPA’s subtech program and other submarine technology efforts. But the incumbent, Rear Admiral Thomas W. Evans, is too far down in the “pecking order” of Navy submarine managers, which includes several submarine offi­cers at the two-, three-, and four-star lev­els, to have a major impact on the situa­tion.³

Submarine technology research in the Navy has been severely limited during the past few years. According to the re­cent congressional study, “the Navy’s ‘in-house’ technical community—its lab­oratories and its shipyards—has become too oriented toward maintenance of the existing fleet at the expense of research and development [(R&D)] for the fleet of the future.”⁴

The Navy had a total of $ 135 million in the fiscal year 1988 and 1989 programs for advanced SSN development efforts, but there is no funding in the fiscal year 1990 and 1991 budgets. (In the same pe­riod, the Navy has allocated more than $820 million for R&D funding in support of the SSN-21.)

A primary goal of the DARPA pro­grams in this area is to develop a new infrastructure to accelerate the develop­ment of technology. The infrastructure for using even available submarine tech-

^lgs/ June 1989

117

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nology has been limited in the past. DARPA is trying to broaden it, to provide for more rapid change in submarine tech­nology and design than has occurred in the past. Part of this strategy will be a push toward more competition in subma­rine technology development.

At the same time, with the unexpected reduction and possible loss of the long- held passive acoustic advantage of U. S. submarines, some observers are ques­tioning if the Seawolf is the proper plat­form for the future—to be the Navy’s primary attack submarine well into the 21st century. DARPA officials and the participants in the recent congressional study are quick to state that their efforts

(OTY)

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Address _ City

are looking beyond the Seawolf.

“This is not a covert scheme to kill the Seawolf,” said Russell Murray, the spe­cial counsel to the House Armed Services Committee and the staffer in charge of the study.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]} The panel’s finding, however, that “the loss in effectiveness of narrow­band passive sonar due to the quieting of Soviet submarines will affect virtually every phase of our ASW capability” seems beyond challenge.^[6]

To the extent that technologies devel­oped by the DARPA subtech program appear to offer new options for future submarines, adverse impact on future congressional funding of the Seawolf can be expected.

While DARPA’s program is not devel­oping future submarine designs, and no specific weapons or sensor research is being funded, “notional designs” are being used to help evaluate potential HM&E technologies. Similarly, other DARPA research efforts do relate to weapons and sensors; indeed, even some of the submarine technology activities are indirectly related. Unmanned underwater vehicles, for example, being developed under the non-subtech efforts, could in­clude weapon and sensor units. In addi­tion, the subtech program is funding a review of torpedo-launching concepts that may have a major impact on subma­rine design.

In this context, Dr. Clark explained “the subtech program is broadly focused and that it is likely that development of new technologies and capabilities will lead to expanded roles and missions for future submarines.”⁷

Officially, the DARPA effort is in­tended to provide the technology base for submarines built after the year 2000. DARPA estimates the potential initial operational capability (IOC) to be be­tween the years 2005 and 2010. Assum­ing a fiscal year 2000 authorization for the follow-on, high-tech submarine, all 30 Seawolfs could have been funded by that time, if a three-ship-per-year build­ing rate can be afforded.

Some members of Congress, as well as DoD officials and outside submarine ex­perts (including some retired flag off' cers), however, are asking what alterna tives are now available to building t*¹⁶ Seawolf. It would, obviously, take sev eral years to design a new attack subm^a fine. One proposal put forward is to con tinue to improve the Los Angela (SSN-688) design. The Los Angela which had an IOC of 1976, is still in P^r° duction, with 61 units now built or ^aU thorized.⁸ The latest of these submarine- have been considerably upgraded f^r011^ the original design and are referred to ' ^ the ISSN-688 series, the “I” indicating “improved.” Although the Navy ^e°ⁿ tends that the Los Angeles has been m’ proved to the maximum extent possib ' ’ that view is not held by some naval arc tects, who believe that further enhance­ments are possible. ..

Another option is to immediately m* ate an austere submarine design, aloⁿ the lines of the recommendations of a 1970s study sponsored by the then-As^sl tant Secretary of the Navy for researc ^ Dr. David Mann. That study propose^ submarine similar in size to the Sturg , (SSN-637) class that would have m°^st^₍ the capabilities of the Los Angeles, cost significantly less. New technology however, may have made the new ^s marine more capable.     , _at

There appears to be little question • a new attack submarine is required f°^r U. S. Navy. Rather, the questions a what should future SSNs look like- ^ in the near term and in the long term-¹ j what can the nation afford if a f°^rcC 100 SSNs is to be kept in the fleet-

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