Once the Plymouth Operations Center gets the word that something has gone wrong, they set in motion a series of preplanned activities to rescue the downed sub's survivors. One of the first is a call to the U.S. Navy to get the loan of one of the DSRV rescue submarines from SUB-DEVGRU 1 at Ballast Point in San Diego, California. As quickly as it can be arranged, a C-5 Galaxy or C-141 Starlifter will arrive at NAS North Island to pick up the DSRV, its crew, and the necessary fittings and equipment to conduct the operation. The idea is that SUBDEVGRU 1 can deliver a DSRV to any point on earth within twenty-four hours, and rescue any crew within forty-eight hours. In this case, the delivery point will be the point closest to one of the "R" class SSBNs, which are equipped to carry and operate the U.S. DSRVs for the Royal Navy. When the transport aircraft arrives, the DSRV and her support equipment are trucked to the port, to be loaded onto a special rack on the back of the British SSBN.
While all this is going on, the crew of the downed submarine are doing their best to do absolutely nothing but stay alive. To purify the air in the surviving compartments, the captain will order the lighting of special candles which, when they burn, release oxygen. Everyone will be ordered to stay quiet, sleep if possible, and just wait calmly. By this time, the Royal Navy has probably assembled a rescue force, which will try to make contact with the survivors and help organize the rescue effort. The first vessel at the site of the sinking may well be another submarine, because of their rapid mobility and their ability to stay on station, whatever the weather and sea conditions. (When the USS Squalus was lost in the 1930s, it was a sister boat, the USS Sculpin, that made first contact with survivors of that downed boat.)
With luck, the "R" class SSBN will able to reach the sinking site near Plymouth within twenty-four to thirty-six hours of the sinking. And at this point, things begin to happen rather quickly. Once the site of the sinking has been established and the attitude of the sunken sub ascertained, the SSBN will submerge and loiter near the downed boat. The crew of the DSRV will enter their boat via the after escape trunk of the SSBN, seal their bottom hatch, and lift off. Since the after part of the sunken sub is flooded, all the survivors will have to exit through the forward escape trunk, and the captain will have to organize the survivors into groups of twenty-four, the maximum the DSRVs are capable of carrying on one trip. At this point the operation begins to look more like two spacecraft docking in orbit. The DSRV maneuvers over the hatch of the downed sub's forward escape trunk and carefully maneuvers down to dock. Once secure, the DSRV's crew blow the water out of the docking collar and bang on the hatch of the escape trunk to tell the crew of the sub that it is time to start the transfer. If the survivors require any medical attention, the DSRV will probably transfer a medical team for the injured. At this point, the first load of survivors enter the two spheres of the DSRV, seal the hatches, and lift off to return to the SSBN. Once there, the DSRV docks with the boomer and discharges the first load of survivors, then repeats the process as many times as required. If the entire crew of the downed sub has survived, it will take four to five trips to offload them all. At this point, any survivors who are seriously injured are MedEvacked via helicopter to a shore hospital.
With the successful rescue of the downed sub's crew, the next job will be to begin salvage of the downed boat. And have no doubt that this will be done, both for the obvious political reasons, and hopefully to put her back into service. And before you doubt the possibility of such a thing, remember that after the USS Squalus was sunk in the 1930s, she was raised and renamed USS Sailfish. She would go on, reborn with a new name and crew, to an outstanding combat record, including the sinking of the first Japanese aircraft carrier by a U.S. submarine. Sometimes from the depths of disaster come the tools of victory.
The End of History: Submarines in the Post-Cold War World
What a difference a decade makes. Since the publication of the first edition of Submarine, there have been numerous changes to the submarine forces of the world's navies, especially that of the United States. Perhaps the most obvious of these are the introduction of the Seawolf-class (SSN-21) boats into service and the continuing work on a new submarine-the Virginia (SSN-774) class. There have been other dramatic changes as well, especially in the fields of engineering, sensors, and weapons. These advances have led to breathtaking improvements in the way we design and plan submarines of the future. At the same time, they will have a profound impact on the way the Navy's newest submarines will fight the potential battles of the twenty-first century.
Submarine Operations in the 1990s
The decade of the 1990s opened with American submarines supporting their first shooting war since 1945. Operation Desert Storm allowed the U.S. submarine force to participate in a major conflict, through the use of BGM-109 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles. The American boats also provided other valuable services during the 1990–1991 war, such as intelligence gathering, maritime surveillance, and special operations support. This trend continued throughout the decade, despite the radical drawdown in the size of the submarine forces of all nations. In fact, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its navy in the 1990s actually freed up the U.S. submarine fleet to undertake a much broader and more significant set of roles in addition to such dangerous yet essential tasks as keeping track of enemy "boomers" and their escorting attack submarines.
Submarines in the 1990s became significant strike platforms, launching Tomahawk attacks into Iraq, the Balkans, and even the retaliation strikes against the Osama bin Laden terrorist organization. So valuable was the capability of submarine-launched cruise missiles that the United Kingdom bought a supply of Tomahawks for their own boats, firing several dozen at Serbian targets during Operation Allied Force in 1999. This covert precision-strike capability has become so attractive that the Royal Navy has looked at equipping every British submarine, including strategic ballistic missile boats, with a supply of American cruise missiles. The U.S. Navy has also considered adding Tomahawks to strategic missile boats, proposing to convert the four oldest Ohio-class SSBNs into huge guided missile /special operations platforms.[11]
Another role that submarines have made their own has been in the arena of special warfare and operations. While the British have always used their fleet of boats to deliver and extract special-operations force (SOF) units like the Royal Marines and their Special Boat Squadrons, American nuclear boats spent most of the Cold War chasing Soviet subs and ships. The exception, of course, was the handful of so-called Special Projects boats, which were converted from existing SSNs.[12] However, the end of the East-West conflict and the emergence of the U.S. Special Operations Command as a result of the 1980s defense reorganization acts has changed all that. Today, SOF units from not only the Navy (the famous SEAL teams) but from the Army Special Forces (the "Green Berets") and Marines now regularly practice their trade from nuclear submarines.[13] Two older strategic ballistic missile boats have even been converted into transport submarines to support the SOF mission.[14]
11
The four boats being considered for conversion to guided missile submarines (SSGNs) include the
12
While a number of boats were configured for electronic eavesdropping, at least four American SSNs were converted into covert operations platforms for deep ocean search and recovery as well as inshore tapping of undersea communications cables. Of the four, only
13
For more on special warfare and the Army Special Forces, see my book
14
The two Lafayette-class (SSBN-616) ballistic missile boats,