Captain Doug Littlejohns: Very.
James Adams: It is?
Captain Doug Littlejohns: One of the more dangerous scenarios — and I hope no submariners will take offense at this — is mixing it up like that. When you’ve got surface forces, aircraft, and submarines all in the same part of the ocean with enemy submarines infiltrating, there’s a temptation to fire at shadows. There are procedures which have been worked on for years to control people in areas which move with the carrier task force, but that requires an awful lot of communications, either underwater communications or satellite type communications. I’ve done it a few times and never felt entirely comfortable when there’s been a known enemy in the vicinity.
James Adams: Those sort of blue on blue instances are all too common on land where people apparently should be able to see each other.
Captain Doug Littlejohns: War’s dangerous and that sort of thing does happen.
Tom Clancy: In World War II, we know at least one and possibly as many as three U.S. submarines were killed blue on blue. And in the one known case, the submarine was in a safe travel zone where nobody was supposed to attack anybody.
Captain Doug Littlejohns: My point exactly.
Tom Clancy: Yes, but a tincan skipper said, “This is it, that’s a Japanese submarine.” Boom.
Captain Doug Littlejohns: Yes.
James Adams: We learn in the game that intelligence says, “There are no enemy around here,” and intelligence, to put it mildly, gets it slightly wrong. What can you rely on? Are you very alone down there? Are you saying it’s me against everybody?
Captain Doug Littlejohns: No, I think that would be overdramatizing it. But there’s no doubt that if one puts implicit faith in the intelligence without a questioning mind, then it will end in tears. Intelligence can be reassuring, but as we mentioned earlier, Akula submarines have come out into the Atlantic and not necessarily been detected, or have only been detected infrequently, during which time they could have moved thousands of miles. So intelligence is not the be all and end all, and therefore it is just another part of the brickwork for running your submarine. That’s it.
James Adams: You have a jaundiced view of intelligence, Tom, I see.
Tom Clancy: It’s imperfect. I’ve yet to meet a tactical or operational commander who really trusts his intelligence sources.
James Adams: Because they prefer to trust their own judgment on the ground rather than some guy who’s somewhere in the rear?
Captain Doug Littlejohns: No, but it is nice to get intelligence, particularly hard intelligence reports, because that can make you frame your thinking for the next several hours. The English language gets very rough treatment in the intelligence service and you go from probable to possible with an awful lot of variations in the middle. And it is possible, after years of reading these things, to know how comfortable they’re feeling back at base. But as I said, I would never put total confidence in it.
James Adams: How do you think a player will come out of this game? Will they come out thinking, “God, who wants to be a skipper of a submarine?” or will they come out thinking, “This is a gripping, exciting, intellectually challenging task?” What do you think they’ll come away with?
Captain Doug Littlejohns: First of all, they’ll come out with a sense of achievement, I hope, if they’ve got through the fifteen scenarios. Secondly, it is not designed to act as a recruiting drive for the U.S. Navy submarine service. But I think what the player will come out with is with a bit of an understanding of what it’s like down there, something which nobody really has tried to portray in the past. You mentioned Crimson Tide; we’ve had a few other movies as well, one that was involved with this chap here. But none of those have really been able to pit the player against a few scenarios where he’s had to learn, hopefully, by his mistakes — or, if he’s bright enough, to operate the submarine intuitively. So I think that, yes, they’ll come out of it with a much better understanding of what life on a submarine is about. And that’s it.
James Adams: What do you think, Tom?
Tom Clancy: I know people who’ve done submarine and anti-submarine warfare from the surface, from underneath, and from the air, and they all agree that it’s the best game in town, that there is nothing more intellectually challenging than submarine slash anti-submarine warfare. And if the player really pays attention to the game, he’ll come out with as realistic a feel for that game as you can get anywhere.
Glossary
Active Sonar: Sonar that provides data by evaluating reflections of its own sound emissions.
ADC Mk 2 Decoy: Electro-acoustic torpedo countermeasure carried by American submarines.
ADCAP: Advanced capability (Mk 48). The most advanced version of the Mk 48 torpedo.
Aegis: Advanced ship-based air defense system designed to protect against massive air and missile saturation attacks. Fitted to Ticonderoga and Arleigh Burke warships.
Akula: The newest and most advanced Russian nuclear attack submarine. There are two variants: Akula I and Akula II. Top speed: 35 knots submerged. Length: 370 feet, 6 inches. Displacement: approximately 10,000 tons submerged. Major weapons: four 65cm tubes and four 53cm torpedo tubes.
Alfa: The Alfa is the first submarine in the world to be constructed of a titanium hull. It is also the fastest and one of the deepest diving. Less than ten units were constructed, however, and the submarine is very noisy and easy to detect. Top speed: 43 knots submerged. Length: 267 feet. Displacement: 3,680 tons submerged. Major weapons: six 53cm torpedo tubes.
ALFS: Airborne low frequency dipping sonar. Joint U.S.-French dipping sonar that will equip future ASW helicopters.
AMRAAM: Advanced medium range air-to-air missile (AIM-120).
Arco (ARDM 5): Medium auxiliary repair dry dock.
Arleigh Burke (DDG-51): Advanced American class of destroyers equipped with the Aegis air defense system. Top speed: 31 knots. Length: 504 feet, 4 inches. Displacement: 9,033 tons full load. Major weapons: Tomahawk, SM-2, and Harpoon missiles.
ASDS: Advanced SEAL delivery system for use on board submarines.
ASW: Anti-submarine warfare.
ASW Mortars/Rockets: Unguided rockets that can be fired from surface ships and are designed to attack submarines.
Baffles: The sonar-blind area to the rear of a ship or submarine. Because of the noise generated by the screw, it is difficult to detect a sonar contact in this area. BDA: Bomb damage assessment.
Biologics: The name given to the underwater sea-life that shows up as sonar contacts on board U.S. sonar systems.
Blue on Blue Encounters: The U.S. Navy’s term for “friendly fire,” an accidental attack on one’s own forces by their own or allied ground, air, or naval forces.
BSY-1: Advanced sonar and fire control system fitted in the 6881 class.