Aboard His Submarine, Jimmy Launders Sank Ralf-Reimar Wolfram’s U-boat
The Hunt for Red October dramatized for the public one of the tensest forms of warfare imaginable: combat between submarines submerged deep under the ocean’s surface, the nerve-wracked crews scouring the fathomless depths for their adversary’s acoustic signature using hydrophones. However, while hunting undersea enemies is one of the primary... Read more
What Happened to Argentina’s Missing Submarine?
Update: 11/23/17: The Argentine navy is presuming the 44 sailors aboard San Juan are dead following a “violent and non-nuclear event consistent with an explosion.” Update 11/20/17: San Juan’s commander reported problems with the submarine’s batteries and an “electrical fault” on the day the vessel went missing, according to... Read more
No, Iranian Submarines Don’t Pose a Major Threat in the Mediterranean
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again slammed Iran’s presence in Syria, this time claiming that Tehran has a plan to base aircraft in the country, dock its submarines on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and directly threaten Israeli waters. “They want to bring their air force there, right next... Read more
What Teddy Roosevelt Taught Mao About Naval Power
Theodore Roosevelt was an avowed Mahanian. He was also a closet Maoist! Or at least, his convictions about strategies for lesser competitors ran parallel to those made popular by Mao Zedong during the Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War, as transposed to marine warfare by the Great Helmsman’s... Read more
Soviet Admirals Shunned Stalin’s Favorite Battlecruiser
The Soviet navy was not in great shape at the onset of the German invasion on June 22, 1941. Stalin had decimated the ranks of the naval officer corps, which greatly complicated planning, and the invasion forced many warship projects to a halt. The Soviets envisioned one of these... Read more
Here Is Why the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships Punch Below Their Weight
The U.S. Navy’s newest class of small surface combatants, the Littoral Combat Ships, come with a few minor flaws. They don’t have the firepower to hit anything more than a few miles away. They’re unlikely to survive being hit by anything in return. They cost more than twice as much... Read more
The U.S. Navy Still Hasn’t Figured Out How to Make a Decent Uniform
In 2016, the U.S. Navy announced it would dump the much-derided NWU Type I — also known as the “blueberry” or “aquaflage” — after it was revealed in 2012 that the uniforms are flammable. Fire, of course, is one of the greatest threats to sailors. That was the worst... Read more
Japan Dreamed of Supercarrier-Size Battleships
In January 1936 Japan announced its intention to withdraw from the London Naval Treaty, accusing both the United States and the United Kingdom of negotiating in bad faith. The Japanese sought formal equality in naval construction limits, something that the Western powers would not give. In the wake of... Read more
In One Sense, Russia’s ‘Lada’ Submarines Are a Step Backward
Russian media has been trumpeting plans to launch two additional Lada-class diesel-electric submarines, two decades after the hull of the lead boat, the St. Petersburg, was laid down. Left delicately unstated in some of the press releases is that these new boats will lack the air-independent propulsion — or AIP... Read more
The U.S. Navy’s Secret Undersea Lair
This story originally appeared on June 24, 2013. Point Sur is 600 feet of tough rock facing Pacific rollers that come 6,000 miles to pound the central California coast. Like the 19th-century lighthouse that marks the Point, the now-derelict compound of the former Naval Facility Point Sur evokes another... Read more