Question for the Navy: is it time to build stealth diesel-electric air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines?

WASHINGTON – Over the past decade, air-independent propulsion (AIP) for submarines has spread rapidly around the world. The technology, which enables conventionally powered submarines to operate without access to outside air, has the potential the shift the balance away from the big nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) that have dominated undersea warfare since the 1950s, and back towards small conventional boats. The National Interest reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

26 Nov. 2018 -- In global terms, this might again make submarines the great strategic equalizer; small, cheap weapons that can destroy the expensive warships of the world’s most powerful navies. Does this mean that the United States should invest in these kinds of boats? Probably not.

Several navies experimented with stealth AIP during the twentieth century. The earliest work began in World War II in the German and Soviet navies, although none of the experiments produced operationally suitable boats.

After the war Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union took advantage of German research to produce their own experimental boats, but nuclear propulsion seemed to offer a more fruitful direction for submarine development.

Related: Italian submarines to be fitted with inertial navigation and guidance systems from Northrop Grumman LITEF

Related: Hamilton Sundstrand joins list of companies developing propulsion for long-endurance surveillance UUVs

Related: Builders looking into submarine-hunting vessels quiet enough to sneak up on submarines

John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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