'Arms race' leaving Australian submarines all at sea

The Age,Australia ^ | May 6, 2007 | Tom Hyland

[California Patriot]

Interesting article.

[Non-Sequitur]

The US resolved that with two crews for most of it’s submarines. That way you get 6 months of training and at home time.

Only missile submarines. Fast attacks have always had a single crew, and generally spend more than 6 months at sea.

[Non-Sequitur]

That potential was exposed last October, when a Chinese attack submarine shadowed, undetected, the US aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk in the East China Sea near Okinawa. The Chinese sub then effectively declared “Gotcha!” by surfacing eight kilometres from the carrier. For a modern submarine, eight kilometres is as good as point blank range.

The last thing you want a potential opponent to know is your capabilities. If the Chinese Romeo did sneak up on the Kitty Hawk then logic would say it would sneak away again without the U.S. knowing. The fact that it surfaced indicates to me that it had no idea just how close to the carrier it was.