Espionage Demands Prod Navy On Sub Construction

Naval Submarine League Update
July 05, 2002

From: Bill Decker bdecker@shentel.net
Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2002 9:00 AM

 Washington Post

 July 5, 2002

 Pg. 19

 Espionage Demands Prod Navy On Sub Construction By Vernon Loeb, Washington Post Staff Writer

The global war on terrorism has increased the demand for intelligence-gathering missions by Navy attack submarines by 30 percent, further stressing a fleet that had more spy missions than it could handle even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, senior Navy officials said this week.

While aircraft carriers and fighter jets have been the most visible Navy participants in the war, attack submarines have been secretly patrolling the waters of countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia gathering acoustic intelligence underwater and intercepting communications with small surface antennas.

Navy submarine commanders are hoping the increased demand for intelligence will help double the number of Virginia-class submarines being built to two a year. "They can stay out there loitering for weeks or months on end," said Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare requirements and resources. "And they are unobserved."

But some naval and intelligence analysts say they are skeptical of recent attempts within the Navy submarine community to promote the intelligence demands as justification for more funding as the  fiscal 2004 budget is being prepared.

They contend that submarines have only limited capabilities when it comes to intercepting telephone conversations and other electronic communications of terrorists on land.

"Submarines are excellent for acoustic intelligence, but whose shipping are we tracking [in the war on terrorism]?" said Norman Polmar, a naval analyst and author. One U.S. intelligence official said,

"The activity level for subs is high, not solely because of September 11th, but for a number of other things that we also need to keep an eye on."

By any measure, a Virginia-class submarine, at $2.3 billion, is an expensive way to gather intelligence, particularly when the Navy is trying to balance more submarines against the need for more surface ships and fighter planes.

Beyond the Navy's own internal debate, submarine advocates must convince Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the submarines' ability to gather intelligence and insert Navy SEALs using small new onboard subs makes them truly "transformational" systems for a future fighting force.

These advocates took heart last year at Rumsfeld's decision to turn four ballistic-missile Trident submarines into stealthy Special  Operations systems capable of carrying 66 SEALs, small insertion subs and 140 conventional Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Whether the Navy can afford to start building two Virginia-class Submarines a year by fiscal 2007, as planned, it pays a premium for every sub it buys a year now by refusing to enter into multiship  contracts that would enable it to benefit from economies of scale.

The Navy could save $90 million a submarine if it contracted for  construction of five boats, and $115 million a submarine if it signed a contract for seven.

 "That's kind of dumb," said Loren B. Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, who has ties to the Pentagon and leading defense contractors. "There is no other submarine. The question is  whether they're going to pay an arm and a leg for it, or just an arm."

During the Cold War, submarines had only limited communications capabilities underwater, submerging for intelligence-gathering missions and providing their "take" only after they surfaced months later.

Now, attack submarines are being outfitted with a new communications link called the Submarine High Data Rate system, which uses a periscope-mounted antenna for data transmission and reception at 256 kilobytes per second.

One senior Navy official said some attack submarines have new  intelligence-gathering systems that employ fiber-optic cable to intercept communications through surface sensors, then process the signals digitally and transmit them to analysis centers in real time.

McGinn predicted that the "business and war-fighting case would be so compelling" that the Navy will increase the building of Virginia-class submarines at some point between fiscal years 2004 and 2009.

McGinn said he thought the Navy would begin building the submarines using a multiyear contract that would produce millions of dollars in savings.