Anti-Submarine Warfare Is Hard

The U.S. Coast Guard has spent several days searching for a missing submarine after an unfortunate mishap on a small Titanic wreck tourist submarine that has left the vessel missing with its air supplies running low and the five people on board (four passengers and one crew person) in peril. So far, the search has been fruitless. It has a 96 hour air supply and has been missing for almost four days (since early Sunday).

There has been no official mention of military anti-submarine warfare resources being used to locate it, but I would be surprised if this is not being done covertly. At least ten surface ships, two remotely operated vehicles, two C-130 aircraft, and two P-3 maritime patrol aircraft (designed for anti-submarine warfare) have been involved in the search with more assets on the way to a location about 900 miles from Cape Cod in a joint U.S.-Canadian search and rescue effort.

The incident is an unintended reminder, with military implications, that finding submarines deep in the ocean is very hard, even if the submarine isn't designed for stealth, isn't trying to hide, can't move very fast, and has a well established late known location. Smaller submarines are even harder to find than larger ones.

Submarines are profoundly more difficult to find and destroy than surface ships, even when they get quite close to a target. But, they can carry roughly comparable armaments to a surface combatant.