Jo,
ASW?
Thanks

A diesel sub got that close? Damn, has the Navy stopped practicing ASW?

A.nti-S.ub W.arfare

Stopped practicing ASW? Very doubtful. Diesel boats can be very quiet.

Didn't we see this Bond movie already?

Sigh, sometimes I think the media people do run everything ....

Following on Mike's point, several years ago a defense analyst wrote an article about the four diesel subs the Iranians had bought from the Russians.

One of the analyst's points was that diesel subs are a lot quieter than nukes. He went on to say that, because of their limited range, etc., vs. nuke subs, they weren't the way to go in the blue ocean, but that in the confines of the Gulf they would be the functional equivalent of very effective mine fields -- their limited mobility would make them relatively stationary but ships would not want to operate in their areas because they were so quiet.

Maybe someone in the ASW community can comment.

The advantage that diesel-electric boats have is the near total silence to hydrophones (yes, I'm showin' my age here, Jo) and it appears, to even newer sonars. ASW generally operates on passive sonar, i.e., simply listening to sounds rather than pounding the water with active blasts of sonar (Yankee search!) which would reveal anything larger than a shingle in the water, but announce to just about anyone listening for a good long ways.

I suspect a few TAOs and ASW officers in that battle group just had their careers shortened. . .

Just to help out any of your non-Bubblehead readers ... .

A diesel boat is properly referred to as diesel-electric. In addition to providing primary drive power, the diesel engines charge a pretty serious bank of batteries, much like current hybrid automobiles. At the discretion of the sub's commander, they can go shut the diesels down and go totally electric for significant periods of time. This enables them to be vewy, vewy, quiet. So much so that they can be hard to distinguish from "natural" background noise. Active sonar overcomes this electric advantage but traumatizes the local fauna and pollutes the efforts anyone who might be on the verge of passively identifying a slowly turning prop on a diesel boat.

CAFKIA

Surfacing that close to the carrier is Chinese for "gotcha!"

I'm guessing someone in the People's Liberation Army is now a full-blown hero of China with all of the pleasures the people can provide. Damn, if that ain't disheartening to learn about. Well, it was bound to happen eventually. Watch for sales of those Chinese boats to skyrocket.

Did anyone send a thank you note to the Chinese for calling this oversight so effectively to our attention?

I didn't realize diesel-electric boats were so quiet, thanks guys. I spent most of my sea time chasing Russian boomers.

Can't get "in the Navy" by the Village People out of my head. You know, up on the deck of the USS StingRay in down Periscope.

As most of my submariner friends used to say, "there are two classes of sub: missile platforms and real submarines."

1. Preznit Oblivious
   
2. Hmmm...
   
3. Feith-less love
   
4. Investigate, not Impeach?
   
5. A day late...
   
6. Who are they fucking kidding?
   
7. Ha Ha
   
8. Always a first...
   
9. Dear Speaker (2B) Pelosi...
   
10. Majority Leader