Carlton Meyer
The Navy is removing nuclear ballistic missiles from 4 of its 18 Trident submarines as part of the post-cold war reduction in nuclear warheads. However, these $$ billion dollar submarines are only 15 years old, so the Navy is considering new missions. Special operations missions are being considered, but using a billion dollar submarine to put a few guys ashore is a waste of resources. It is far more practical to drop commandos from aircraft or from small boats launched from ships.
The other idea is to add land attack missiles. However, our Navy already has over 6000 missile launchers to fire million dollar missiles. These missiles are of limited value except against precision, high-value targets, which is why the Navy only launched 288 Tomahawks during the entire 1991 Persian Gulf war. A single cruiser can launch 122 of these missiles, so there is no need to refit submarines to duplicate this role.
However, Trident submarines could be used to fill the gap in naval gunfire support; the film Saving Private Ryan The Navy retired all four battleships, and only has small 5 inch guns in the fleet. Each cruiser has only two guns, and destoyers just one. They can only fire a 90 lbs projectile 13-18 miles. Worst of all, these ships are unarmored so the Navy is hesistant to bring these billion dollar ships within 25 miles of the shoreline because of the coastal missile threat.
The solution is to refit four Trident submarines with 8-inch guns. Each submarine has 24 huge missile tubes which are 6 feet in diameter. A naval gun could fit into the tube, and a lift could push it up on deck to fire once the submarine surfaces. This would require the gun barrel to rise to a complete vertical position. Each submarine could carry 12 guns in the missile tubes, while the other 12 tubes carry ammunition.
These submarine gunboats could perform two unique missions. First, they could surface to provide close-in gunfire to marines ashore. Since they have a small superstructure while on the surface, it would be very difficult for enemy missile systems to detect them a few miles offshore. Even if located, the enemy would find them difficult to hit. Nevertheless, the submarine could quickly submerge until naval forces offshore destroy the coastal threat.
A second role would be a stealth strike mission. Approaching naval aircraft and even cruise missiles can be detected and the alarm sounded. The enemy can take cover and possibly shoot down the attackers. However, a submarine could approach offshore and surface without being detected. It could open fire with 12 guns and deliver 240 x 200lbs shells within one minute, then quickly submerge.
The enemy would have no warning, especially since naval guns fire shells faster than the speed of sound. Everything would be quiet, suddenly huge explosions would rock the target area for a minute and then stop. The enemy would be terrified and unable to respond. They may eventually conclude that naval gunfire struck, but it would take several minutes to dispatch patrol boats and aircraft, assuming they would want to at night. The submarine would be long gone anyway, and naval air could take target practice at enemy search aircraft or boats.
Four submarine gunboats would provide our Navy with a powerful new capability. Merging these two proven weapons systems into Trident gunboats would provide a unique weapon's platform at a low cost.
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e-mail May 1998