Coordinated submarine attack

tankee1981 SG

Is it possible for submarines to work in small groups plus surface ASW and aerial ASW elements to attack a certain objective in a coordinated manner. Which is to be able to maintain communications with each other throughout the course of battle, i think this is how network-centric warfare is conducted in the future for the underwater battlefield.

This is with respect to the purchase of submarines in our region such as the Indonesians and Malaysians. Thailand is also interested to get submarines too. Very Happy

fudgester SG

Well, Karl Donitz used his submarine wolfpacks to great effect in WWII.

I dunno about modern subs though.

dork3d SG

In order to do this, there must be a data link visible to all relevant parties to link on and share information through this sort of network grid... There's always pros and cons in coordinated attack sequence...

Gedanken SG

Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that real-time comms is unavailable for subs when they are submerged. That being the case, coordinating is going to be a bugger.

tankee1981 SG

Originally posted by Gedanken
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that real-time comms is unavailable for subs when they are submerged. That being the case, coordinating is going to be a bugger.

I believe so too, but the trend is for greater integration between the different weapon system assets for both attacking and defending an objective. Much like the combined arms divisions which we have for our army, i am sure we can doing something to improve the situation which we have for our underwater assets as well.

We must continuously seek new ways so as to stay one step ahead of our potential enemies to maintain our formidable deterrance stance. Therefore i am speculating on how we can do things better in a realistic setting. Very Happy

Gedanken SG

Undoubtedly the need is there, but the question remains as to whether the technology is available. It seems that water is not as friendly a medium to radio transmissions as air is. As far as I’m aware, the US Navy’s subs receive a heads-up by way of an low frequency transmission, after which they surface and receive satellite transmissions with the actual message.

storywolf SG

Submarines usually is not used in a co-ordinate manner as the way you envision. Usually they can be working as a pack , but usually in a co-ordinate manner each covering a certain sector, rather then 2 - 3 working side by side.
They are more of lone hunters.

But then the attack on peal harbour did show some small mini-sub of the japanese navy and regular subs doing co-ordinated attack on pearl harbour.

riken1974 SG

Modern Subs are able to recieve signal underwater at certain depth...however they r not able to transmit underwater...the only way to transmit signal is through raising their comms mast at periscope depth...this is usually done at night or when visbility is poor or bad weather.....it's usually at a schedule interval..