Sub Busters - Countering the Submarine Threat

The battle between submarine and surface forces goes back to World War I, when German technology first confronted English tactical imagination. Then, and since, there seemed something unfair about the duel. The ocean is huge, a submarine is small and easily hidden, able to strike without warning against seemingly defenseless vessels and crews. The submarine has proved to be, with the aircraft carrier, one of the most effective weapons a nation may use for conflict resolution and crisis management.By World War 2, inventions like sonar/asdic and radar, along with airborne ASW patrols and other techniques and technologies were developed and applied to the Battle of the Atlantic. The German U-boat fleet, initially invulnerable, was ultimately defeated, going to the bottom with nearly all hands.Today, the submarine still prowls the vast oceans. Huge 'boomers' with nuclear power-plants and intercontinental missiles, small attack boats with 'smart' torpedoes cruise beneath the waves awaiting the call to battle stations.Anti-submarine warfare has become a military version of a fine art. The team includes ships like the sleek frigates and destroyers, with racks of homing torpedoes and magazines full of anti-submarine rockets. Here's how they do it....