HMS Gotland Arrives in San Diego

The Swedish submarine HMS Gotland has been re-united with her crew in San Diego. Of note to those who think the US Navy needs to invest in small diesel submarines, and somehow thinks they'll still be able to respond quickly to distant threats:

“We have been waiting for this day,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jan Westas, commanding officer of Gotland, which was shipped on a container ship from Sweden while the crew traveled separately. “We have all missed Gotland. Everyone is motivated, ready and eager to go to sea and get back to work.”

Nonetheless, this should be a great training aid for the fleet, while freeing up local sub crews from the drudgery of playing "diesel-boat OPFOR". As soon as the crew gets Gotland recovered from the transit, they should be ready to support the fall cycle of exercises.

"Before beginning the yearlong training here, Gotland’s crew has to complete a lot of work to make the boat ready for sea.
“This is the first time Gotland has been in the Pacific, which is very different from the Baltic Ocean,” Westas said. Gotland was built for operating in the waters around Scandinavia, which has less salt content. “Now that we are in the Pacific, we will have to re-ballast Gotland for the Pacific.”

One last quote from the article didn't really make sense, so I think the JO2 writing the story may have messed it up; anyone who's working with the Swedes can correct me if I'm wrong, though:
"The 30-person male and female crew is comprised of 19 officers and 11 conscripts."

Nineteen officers? On a 30 person crew? And no enlisted volunteers? I'm wondering if the JO2 somehow committed the common media error of lumping in the Petty Officers with the commissioned "officers"...

Going deep...

The Latest "Diesel Boats Are Scary" Story

Every few months, you'll see a story in some local paper about how "diesel boats sank the most advanced U.S. warships in an exercise" or "foreign warplanes shot down our most advanced fighters in an exercise". The newest one came out last week on the nbc4.tv website from LA, discussing the San Diego-based Swedish submarine HMS Gotland. Here are some excerpts:

According to Swedish newspapers, in training exercises the Gotland has sunk our most sophisticated nuclear submarines. But perhaps even more disconcerting, it reportedly sunk our largest aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Reagan...
...As the U.S. funnels billions into the war on terror, countries like North Korea, China and Iran are building or trying to get submarines like the Gotland.
Two months ago in the Persian Gulf, Iran tested a new anti-ship missile fired by one of its subs.
If the Iranians are successful in getting a Gotland-class submarine, it could pose a new silent danger to vital oil tanker traffic in the region...

I'd say that's a pretty big if -- I don't think the Swedes are selling to the Iranians. Still, I think these stories actually serve a fairly good purpose, hopefully getting Congress to provide more money for the military to respond to the "threat"; they also make our allies feel better about themselves, which is important. Meanwhile, those of us who know will just keep it to ourselves that essentially every submarine in the world could "sink" a carrier in a SoCal exercise; the real question is how they'd do in a real-world situation, where they'd have to transit a couple hundred miles to the CVOA, and their torpedos would actually have to work, and they'd be going up against a screen of one or two SSNs, who know what the threat axis is and who don't have their NAUs turned on. (This is not to say the Gotland, or another Western submarine and crew couldn't do it -- they're very good. We're not planning on going to war with them, though. I'm saying that an Iranian or North Korean diesel boat and crew would have a hard time actually getting close enough to an alerted Battle Group to do any militarily significant damage. Remember, in a war with Iran, we're not going to be sending the carriers charging through the SOH until the Iranian Kilos are sunk; they'll be way down in the Arabian Sea, leveling the submarine maintenance facility at Bandar Abbas with air strikes.)

Until then, we'll just sit back and act shocked, and let everyone know that if we had a few billion more dollars, we could make it all better.

Submarine Vets Tour HMS Gotland

A reader with a Scandinavian ISP sent a couple links today with some interesting news about HMS Gotland, the Swedish sub currently providing a training "target" (if they can find her) for the Pacific Fleet out of San Diego. The first is a report from a Swedish paper that everyone seems to be very happy with the experience to date, and are looking to see if they can extend the Gotland's stay for another year.

The second link was fascinating to me. A group of WWII submarine veterans (from the Ventura chapter of USSVWWII) were given a tour on Gotland when she was in port earlier this year, and got a lot of great pictures, including some pictures of the inside of the sub. Definitely worth a visit to the website.

USS Dolphin On The Prowl

Today brings a new picture of and article about the American diesel-powered submarine USS Dolphin (AGSS 555). Returning to sea for her first long underway after the 2002 flooding and fire incident, it looks like she's ready to show HMS Gotland that there's another diesel boat ready to help out in San Diego!

Update 1826 20 Dec: Speaking of HMS Gotland, here's a new report on how they did during the Reagan Strike Group JTFEX. Excerpts:

"According to Swedish Liaison Officer Lt. Cmdr. Peter Ostbring, Gotland and her crew played a number of roles during the joint exercise, which mutually benefited the U.S. and Swedish navies by enhancing overall anti-submarine warfare (ASW) proficiencies and further strengthening the relationship between the two countries.
"Initially, [Gotland] was acting as an opposing force, and in the middle of the exercise, she acted as a green (friendly force) submarine, like a third country in a coalition doing intelligence and reconnaissance missions for the strike group," he said. "Later, she returned to being an opposing force."

Update 0630 21 Dec: Here's another article about the Dolphin.

Fourth of July Weekend -- Boise Style!

The Sub Report directed my attention to this great picture of USS Boise's christening ceremony that I thought would be a great shot for this Idaho-based submariner's blog...



Other pictures of the Boise can be found here.

In other submarine news, check out this article with a picture of the Swedish submarine HMS Gotland arriving in San Diego (I had linked to the text of the article a couple of days ago). [Update 0926 06 July: Here a better picture of the Gotland from the official Navy website.] There's also an article on the recent discovery of the final resting place of the WWII submarine USS Lagarto (SS 371) , on eternal patrol since May 3, 1945.

In other weekend blog-reading news, I have it on good authority that Ninme's website should be back up and running soon. If you're on the lookout for a new blog, check out "Politics of a Patriot", about a young woman my daughter's age who will be chronicling her journey from civilian to Navy Intelligence Specialist over the next few months (Intel Source: Chaotic Synaptic Activity). And as always, check out the submarine group blog Ultraquiet No More.

Going deep...

Update 1035 04 July: While Ninme is still working on restoring her archives, I wanted to direct your attention to the lovely ladies of the Cotillion -- especially the beautiful and talented Janette over at Common Sense Runs Wild, who says very nice things about my writing that totally make me blush...

Chilean Submarine In San Diego

Navy NewsStand has a couple of pictures of the newest participant in the Diesel Electric Submarine Initiative (DESI) as she arrived in Point Loma -- the Chilean Type 209 CS Simpson (SS 21):

CS Simpson seems to be replacing the Swedish submarine HMS Gotland as the U.S.-based allied DESI participant. According to the article accompanying the pictures, the Chileans will be at Subase Point Loma for three months. From what I've heard, the Chileans are either the 2nd or 3rd best submariners in the Western Hemisphere (it's between them and the Canadians for 2nd place, and I wouldn't bet against the Chileans), so they should provide a high level of training for our Navy. I'm sure the American submariners in San Diego are giving their Chileans brothers a good primer on the places to go and things to see while they're in town!

Was Blind, But Now I See...

Occasionally here at TSSBP, I see a story on submarines that I'm like 99% sure is wrong, but there's enough of a chance that things have changed in the year I've been out of the Navy that I want to get more information before I mock and belittle the writers.

Such was the case yesterday, when I read the wire service story on the San Diego Fleet Week's "Sea and Air Parade". Here're the paragraphs that confused me:

"Ships that participated in the procession included an aircraft carrier, cruiser, guided missile destroyer, nuclear submarine and an amphibious assault ship.
"A crew of about 10 sailors stood at attention on the submarine deck, as onlookers waved and cheered the massive ship, most of it under water."

You see, the Sea and Air Parade mostly takes place on the downtown side of North Island (in this overhead picture, the Sub Base in to the left of the southwest corner of North "Island", and downtown is to the right, north of the curved bridge that goes to Coronado/North "Island"). For some reason, nuclear submarines never, ever go over to that side of the bay. So that's what had me confused. Had NR ended the prohibition against sending subs over to that side of the bay? I didn't figure that the writer would have misidentified some other type of ship as a submarine...

Today, my confusion was resolved. Because of the nuke-centrism of the U.S. Sub Force, I had forgotten about the good ship HMS Gotland, the Swedish diesel sub that is helping train our ASW forces in San Diego for the next year. They were the boat that got to take part in the parade, and hopefully they had a good time. Now, to the delayed mocking of the article. There are enough people with military experience in San Diego that the writers should be able to have someone fact-check their articles before publishing to catch such errors as mistaking a diesel boat for a nuclear one. I especially liked how they described the (relatively) tiny diesel boat as "massive". The Navy picture has a nice contrast between the size of the USS Ronald Reagan and the sub -- interestingly, if there was a one-on-one fight between the two ships, I'd rate it as a toss-up as to which one would be sunk first...

Bell-ringer 1153 03 Oct: A commenter lets us know that local SSNs have taken part in the Parade before:
"I was on board Salt Lake City when we participated in the parade of ships back in 2002 (also on a Saturday). We started out by buoy SD, waited for the parade to start then made the trip to the North side of the bay, turned around just prior to the bridge and came back. I think we had about 50 guys on board that day."

AIP and ASW

A decent article in the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs discusses the U.S. Navy's new focus on ASW and especially the need to counter the potential threat from Air Independent Propulsion boats.

"The AIP-equipped Gotland-class submarine, one of five in Swedish service, will be stationed at the United States Naval Base at Point Loma in San Diego, and will be involved in training exercises in both the Pacific and Atlantic. Officials expect the information gained in the training operations to enhance American sonar technology and to lead to the establishment of a solid bank of operational experience versus AIP-equipped subs. Rear Admiral Donald Bullard, Director of Readiness and Training for Fleet Forces Command, said, “This will vastly improve our capability to conduct realistic, effective antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training [and further]... our efforts in developing coalition ASW tactics, techniques and procedures.”
"The U.S. Navy is concerned that “rogue” states and terrorist organizations will acquire this capability because it is far less expensive to build and operate diesel-electric submarines with the AIP system than nuclear submarines. Countries that operate AIP-equipped submarines include Sweden, Germany, Greece, Italy, Pakistan, and Russia. The Spanish Navy has funded a three-part process of researching and developing AIP systems for its new S-80 submarines, four of which are scheduled to be commissioned between 2005 and 2014. These submarines are expected to cost some $650 million each.
"Over the past decade, the U.S. Navy has experienced a marked decrease in ASW training missions including those in shallow, crowded waters. It is in these “littoral” waters where the threat was most clearly manifested. The Straits of Hormuz, crowded with supertankers, thousands of smaller craft, shallow waters, reefs and wrecks, is the chokepoint a hostile navy could easily block, cutting the flow of oil dramatically. The tight and the underwater noise generated by the immense traffic severely diminish the effectiveness of advanced sonar systems."

Those who think the U.S. Navy should move towards AIP forget not only how long it takes these boats to get anywhere, and also the fact that since we are unlikely to cut back on our safety requirements, U.S.-built AIP boats would cost much more that the $650M mentioned.

Lots of Submarine News Today...

...and me without time to do much in the way of commenting this morning. (We're preparing to take our oldest off to college tomorrow, so we're all rushing around, with Mom and Dad trying to find things through the haze of tears.) Check out Rontini's daily SONAR brief; you'll find new information on the Tango Bravo (the next generation submarine), an article on how the Navy is using our ASW "expertise" to track merchant ships, and a couple of articles on our plans to use the Swedish submarine HMS Gotland to help train our forces to work against quiet diesel boats. One quick snarky comment on the Tango Bravo article: It says that "EB was awarded... $6.3 million to look at shaftless propulsion, which most experts expect will use electric motors instead of a mechanical turbine and propeller system."

Do ya think? (Actually, I know a little bit about this initiative, so I won't be able to comment that much. I will be able to tell you to ignore people who think it'll be just like the "Red October"'s "caterpillar drive".)

Going deep...

The Times, They Are A'Changin...

(Intel source: Rontini's BBS) Check out this photo of "Officers and crew of the Swedish Navy submarine HMS Gotland (A 19) tour(ing)... the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Hartford (SSN 768). Check out the young Sailor to the right of the three waiting to go down the WSH. Notice anything? I'll wait until you get back...

Did you see it? OK, it looks like she's a midshipman, so probably not a regular member of the crew. That doesn't really make a difference, though; Sweden is one of the three countries (Norway and Australia are the others) I know of who have removed gender restrictions on submarine service.

Please note that now that I'm no longer on active duty, I really don't have a stake in the "gender integration in submarines" debate, so I can say that I think it would be a pain in the ass, but we'd end up working it out if it was forced on us.

Emergency deep! (To avoid objects being thrown by the active duty submariners)

Diesel Sub ASW

Winds of Change has an interesting discussion of the diesel submarine threat and U.S. Navy response posted today. Also, JINSA has up a really good recap of the issues and plans surrounding the U.S. Navy's upcoming lease of a Swedish submarine and crew for ASW training. Excerpts:

"The AIP-equipped Gotland-class submarine, one of five in Swedish service, will be stationed at the United States Naval Base at Point Loma in San Diego, and will be involved in training exercises in both the Pacific and Atlantic. Officials expect the information gained in the training operations to enhance American sonar technology and to lead to the establishment of a solid bank of operational experience versus AIP-equipped subs. Rear Admiral Donald Bullard, Director of Readiness and Training for Fleet Forces Command, said, “This will vastly improve our capability to conduct realistic, effective antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training [and further]... our efforts in developing coalition ASW tactics, techniques and procedures.”
"The U.S. Navy is concerned that “rogue” states and terrorist organizations will acquire this capability because it is far less expensive to build and operate diesel-electric submarines with the AIP system than nuclear submarines. Countries that operate AIP-equipped submarines include Sweden, Germany, Greece, Italy, Pakistan, and Russia. The Spanish Navy has funded a three-part process of researching and developing AIP systems for its new S-80 submarines, four of which are scheduled to be commissioned between 2005 and 2014. These submarines are expected to cost some $650 million each...
..."With the former Soviet submarine fleet largely left to rust at their moorings, ASW had not been a large concern until recently, when AIP submarines became more operationally effective and relatively easy to obtain. Only Swedish naval personnel will operate the Swedish ship, but there will be a handful of U.S. Navy researchers onboard to study the different features of the submarine. Kauderer said that Swedish submarine’s operations would most likely begin with basic exercises in which the U.S. mission will be to locate the sub and then become more complex to the point where the Swedish sub will be used against an entire carrier strike group, consisting of one carrier, destroyers, cruisers, and one nuclear attack submarine.
"Admiral Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations, has strongly stressed the need for an improvement in ASW. He has overseen the establishment of three new programs to further the training of sailors: Fleet ASW Command, based out of San Diego; Task Force ASW, based out of Washington, D.C., which will study ASW and come up with a plan to better the training of sailors; and the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems at Naval Sea Systems Command, which is in charge of researching, developing, and acquiring new technology to assist in ASW. The three are responsible for studying current ASW training exercises, capabilities, and weaknesses, and recommending different options for improving upon them. New operational techniques and new technology, some which had not been tested before, were to be put to use during an exercise called “Undersea Dominance ’04,” These exercises involved many different types of ships. Admiral Clark, as reported by The Navy League of the United States quoted Clark in their October 2004 issue of Sea Power as wanting to “fundamentally change ASW operations away from individual platforms - ship, submarine or aircraft - to a system with the attributes of ‘pervasive awareness, persistence and speed, all enabled by technological agility.’”

It'll be interesting to see if they'll let the diesel boat operate at full capacity, or if they'll "handicap" it like they do with U.S. submarines when they do exercises against surface ships.

Going deep...