The Russian Military: Declining or Better?

[davidbfpo]

Even if Bill Gertz is the author of the cited article (having left The Washington Times), the language is colourful, almost as if the Akula was at Kings Bay, not in the Gulf of Mexico:

The latest submarine incursion in the Gulf...

Plus a lot of jigsaw pieces all being added together - to support more defence spending. Such as the P-8, which has struggled to be sold:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_P-8_Poseidon

Elsewhere on SWC and an ocean away in the South China Sea freedom of navigation for all is cited as under threat by China. The Russian Akula was just doing that, exercising in international waters; something of course the USN SSK never do of course.

Then Gertz adds:

A second, alarming air incursion took place July 4 on the West Coast when a Bear H strategic bomber flew into U.S. airspace near California and was met by U.S. interceptor jets.

Similar flights by Bear bombers have been reported in the UK, but when examined closely the 'airspace' was not territorial airspace, but the UK air defence and civil aviation area - a very different legal concept, which has no standing in international law.

Given Gertz's record for obtaining help from within officialdom, one can happily speculate whose best interests are served by this unconfirmed report.

[AdamG]

Given Gertz's record for obtaining help from within officialdom, one can happily speculate whose best interests are served by this unconfirmed report.

Yeah, and?

Gertz paints a pretty plain picture.

The submarine patrol also exposed what U.S. officials said were deficiencies in U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities—forces that are facing cuts under the Obama administration’s plan to reduce defense spending by $487 billion over the next 10 years.

Perhaps Gertz is stumping for the ASW funding proponents, but it's not mutually exclusive to point out 1) that the Russians are getting back into the habit of flexing their muscles, and 2) a Russian sub sat on our doorstep twiddling it's thumbs for a month while 3) the USN leadership is engaged in sexual pattycakes and generally poor seamanship.

[Fuchs]

deficiencies in U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities

Ooooold story.

Stories about ASW deficiencies are available in abundance and it affects all classic forces.

Aerial ASW is a near-impotent museum piece from WW2 that does no more than to force the hostile subs to be cautious.

Classic surface ASW with passive sonar (towed or hull mounted doesn't matter) are in peril against old SSNs and at the same time totally useless targets in face of a modern hostile SSK.

Surface ASW is potent with low frequency active sonars, but the emitters should be detached from major surface units if not even dispersed. Survival of surface units still depends on being silent, that is "slow" unless they sail; cavitation begins with the relatively small surface ship screws already at speeds well below what classic tea clippers were able to achieve.
Most if not all "modern"(-time) navies insist on the classic impressive warship basis instead of accepting the need for many small units. It's a bit reminiscent of 10+ battleship WW2 navies being forced to build 500+ sub hunters during wartime.

SSNs are fine at defeating obsolete loud other SSNs, but fail regularly even at the detection of modern hostile SSKs.

Modern SSKs are less prone to be found by other modern SSKs, but this works both ways. They're also often too slow to intercept a 15 kts cruising convoy and certainly too slow to escort it.

[carl]

The Akula is a very good sub which we already knew but this further confirms that.

If we didn't know the boat sailed from Russia, crossed the Atlantic and cruised around the Caribbean for a month, how did we know that it left and how did we know it was there for a month?

[Fuchs]

Afaik some other source suggested that the Russians were on sightseeing tour, taking enough periscope photos as souvenirs.

Periscope shot souvenirs are apparently popular among sub drivers.

[carl]

I have another question for people who know about these things. Does this mean SOSUS isn't very useful anymore?

[slapout9]

I have another question for people who know about these things. Does this mean SOSUS isn't very useful anymore?

Col. MacGregor (the Army Colonel Tank Commander) has been hired by the US Navy to basically re-do the whole underwater detection sensor network. So I think SOSUS is going to get a big upgrade so UUAV (Underwater Unmanned Attack Vehicles) can be used.

I had an article I had saved about a Soviet Missile launching sub crusing the Gulf Of Mexico undetectedI was going to post but I am not sure what I did with it but it is out there in cyber-space somewhere.

Don't never trust them Ruskies!