The Five
Best Submarines of All Time
By Robert
Farley in The National Interest
Magazine
There have been three great submarine
campaigns in history, and one prolonged duel. The First and Second Battles of
the Atlantic pitted German U-boats against the escorts and aircraft of the
United Kingdom and the United States. The Germans very nearly won World War I
with the first campaign, and badly drained Allied resources in the second. In
the third great campaign, the submarines of the US Navy destroyed virtually the
entire commercial fleet of Japan, bringing the Japanese economy to its knees.
US subs also devastated the Imperial Japanese Navy, sinking several of Tokyo’s
most important capital ships.
But the period most evocative of our
modern sense of submarine warfare was surely the forty year duel between the
submarines of the USSR and the boats of the various NATO navies. Over the
course of the Cold War, the strategic nature of the submarine changed; it moved
from being a cheap, effective killer of capital ships to a capital ship in its
own right. This was especially the case with the boomers, submarines that
carried enough nuclear weapons to kill millions in a few minutes.
As with previous “5 Greatest” lists,
the answers depend on the parameters; different sets of metrics will generate
different lists. Our metrics concentrate on the strategic utility of specific
submarine classes, rather than solely on their technical capabilities.
· Was the submarine a cost-effective
solution to a national strategic problem?
· Did the submarine compare favorably
with its contemporaries?
· Was the submarine’s design
innovative?
And with that, the five best submarines
of all time:
U-31:
The eleven boats of the U-31 class were
constructed between 1912 and 1915. They operated in both of the periods of
heavy action for German U-boats, early in the war before the suspension of
unrestricted warfare, and again in 1917 when Germany decided to go for broke
and cut the British Empire off at the knees. Four of these eleven boats (U-35,
U-39, U-38, and U-34) were the four top killers of World War I; indeed, they
were four of the five top submarines of all time in terms of tonnage sunk (the
Type VII boat U-48 sneaks in at number 3). U-35, the top killer, sank 224 ships
amounting to over half a million tons.
The U-31 boats were evolutionary,
rather than revolutionary; they represented the latest in German submarine
technology for the time, but did not differ dramatically from their immediate
predecessors or successors. These boats had good range, a deck gun for
destroying small shipping, and faster speeds surfaced than submerged. These
characteristics allowed the U-31 class and their peers to wreak havoc while
avoiding faster, more powerful surface units. They did offer a secure, stealthy
platform for carrying out a campaign that nearly forced Great Britain from the
war. Only the entry of the United States, combined with the development of
innovative convoy tactics by the Royal Navy, would stifle the submarine
offensive. Three of the eleven boats survived the war, and were eventually
surrendered to the Allies.
Balao:
The potential for a submarine campaign
against the Japanese Empire was clear from early in the war. Japanese industry
depended for survival on access to the natural resources of Southeast Asia.
Separating Japan from those resources could win the war. However, the pre-war
USN submarine arm was relatively small, and operated with poor doctrine and bad
torpedoes. Boats built during the war, including primarily the Gato and Balao
class, would eventually destroy virtually the entire Japanese merchant marine.
The Balao class represented very nearly
the zenith of the pre-streamline submarine type. War in the Pacific demanded
longer ranges and more habitability than the relatively snug Atlantic. Like
their predecessors the Gato, the Balaos were less maneuverable than the German
Type VII subs, but they made up for this in strength of hull and quality of
construction. Compared with the Type VII, the Balaos had longer range, a larger
gun, more torpedo tubes, and a higher speed. Of course, the Balaos operated in
a much different environment, and against an opponent less skilled in
anti-submarine warfare. The greatest victory of a Balao was the sinking of the
58000 ton HIJMS Shinano by Archerfish.
Eleven of 120 boats were lost, two in
post-war accidents. After the war Balao class subs were transferred to several
friendly navies, and continued to serve for decades. One, the former USS Tusk,
remains in partial commission in Taiwan as Hai Pao.
Type XXI
In some ways akin to the Me 262, the
Type XXI was a potentially war-winning weapon that arrived too late to have
serious effect. The Type XXI was the first mass produced, ocean-going
streamlined or “true” submarine, capable of better performance submerged than
on the surface. It gave up its deck gun in return for speed and stealth, and
set the terms of design for generations of submarines.
Allied anti-submarine efforts focused
on identifying boats on the surface (usually in transit to their patrol areas)
then vectoring killers (including ships and aircraft) to those areas. In 1944
the Allies began developing techniques for fighting “schnorkel” U-boats that
did not need to surface, but remained unprepared for combat against a submarine
that could move at 20 knots submerged.
In effect, the Type XXI had the stealth
to avoid detection prior to an attack, and the speed to escape afterward.
Germany completed 118 of these boats, but because of a variety of industrial
problems could only put four into service, none of which sank an enemy ship.
All of the Allies seized surviving examples of the Type XXI, using them both as
models for their own designs and in order to develop more advanced
anti-submarine technologies and techniques. For example, the Type XXI was the model
for the Soviet “Whiskey” class, and eventually for a large flotilla of Chinese
submarines.
George Washington:
We take for granted the most common
form of today’s nuclear deterrent; a nuclear submarine, bristling with
missiles, capable of destroying a dozen cities a continent away. These
submarines provide the most secure leg of the deterrent triad, as no foe could
reasonably expect to destroy the entire submarine fleet before the missiles
fly.
The secure submarine deterrent began in
1960, with the USS George Washington. An enlarged version of the Skipjack class
nuclear attack sub, George Washington’s design incorporated space for sixteen
Polaris ballistic missiles. When the Polaris became operational, USS George
Washington had the capability from striking targets up to 1000 miles distant
with 600 KT warheads. The boats would eventually upgrade to the Polaris A3,
with three warheads and a 2500 mile range. Slow relative to attack subs but
extremely quiet, the George Washington class pioneered the “go away and hide”
form of nuclear deterrence that is still practiced by five of the world’s nine
nuclear powers.
And until 1967, the George Washington
and her sisters were the only modern boomers. Their clunky Soviet counterparts
carried only three missiles each, and usually had to surface in order to fire.
This made them of limited deterrent value. But soon, virtually every nuclear
power copied the George Washington class. The first “Yankee” class SSBN entered
service in 1967, the first Resolution boat in 1968, and the first of the French
Redoutables in 1971. China would eventually follow suit, although the PLAN’s
first genuinely modern SSBNs have only entered service recently. The Indian
Navy’s INS Arihant will likely enter service in the next year or so.
The five boats of the George Washington
class conducted deterrent patrols until 1982, when the SALT II Treaty forced
their retirement. Three of the five (including George Washington) continued in
service as nuclear attack submarines for several more years.
Los Angeles:
Immortalized in the Tom Clancy novels
Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising, the U.S. Los Angeles class is the
longest production line of nuclear submarines in history, constituting
sixty-two boats and first entering service in 1976. Forty-one subs remain in
commission today, continuing to form the backbone of the USN’s submarine fleet.
The Los Angeles (or 688) class are
outstanding examples of Cold War submarines, equally capable of conducting
anti-surface or anti-submarine warfare. In wartime, they would have been used
to penetrate Soviet base areas, where Russian boomers were protected by rings
of subs, surface ships, and aircraft, and to protect American carrier battle
groups.
In 1991, two Los Angeles class attack
boats launched the first ever salvo of cruise missiles against land targets,
ushering in an entirely new vision of how submarines could impact warfare.
While cruise missile armed submarines had long been part of the Cold War duel
between the United States and the Soviet Union, most attention focused either
on nuclear delivery or anti-ship attacks. Submarine launched Tomahawks gave the
United States a new means for kicking in the doors of anti-access/area denial
systems. The concept has proven so successful that four Ohio class boomers were
refitted as cruise missile submarines, with the USS Florida delivering the
initial strikes of the Libya intervention.
The last Los Angeles class submarine is
expected to leave service in at some point in the 2020s, although outside
factors may delay that date. By that time, new designs will undoubtedly have
exceeded the 688 in terms of striking land targets, and in capacity for
conducting anti-submarine warfare. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles class will
have carved out a space as the sub-surface mainstay of the world’s most
powerful Navy for five decades.
Conclusion
Fortunately, the United States and the
Soviet Union avoided direct conflict during the Cold War, meaning that many of
the technologies and practices of advanced submarine warfare were never employed
in anger. However, every country in the world that pretends to serious maritime
power is building or acquiring advanced submarines. The next submarine war will
look very different from the last, and it’s difficult to predict how it will
play out. We can be certain, however, that the fight will be conducted in
silence.
Honorable Mention: Ohio, 260O-21, Akula, Alfa, Seawolf, Swiftsure, I-201,
Kilo, S class, Type VII
Robert Farley is an assistant professor
at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. His work
includes military doctrine, national security, and maritime affairs. He blogs
at Lawyers, Guns and Money and Information Dissemination and The Diplomat.
This piece first appeared on January
18. It is being recirculated due to reader interest.
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