The era of U.S. Navy subsea complacency is over as new russian stealth submarines represent an increasing challenge for the U.S. ASW capabilities, a Navy official said.
Writing in the June issue of the US Naval Institute’s magazine, Proceedings, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral James Foggo III, Commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet and Commander of Striking and Support Forces NATO, together with Dr. Alarik Fritz, contended that an effective, skilled, and technologically advanced Russian submarine force operating in the Atlantic was threatening U.S. and NATO hegemony.
Noting that Russian submarine patrols grew 50 percent since 2013 Foggo said submarines of the Russian Federation were one of the most difficult threats the United States had faced.
Foggo added that Russia now employs an “arc of steel” from the Arctic through the Baltic and down to the Black Sea which give the country capability to hold NATO maritime forces at risk.
“No longer is the maritime space uncontested. For the first time in almost 30 years, Russia is a significant and aggressive maritime power,” Foggo wrote.
One of the responses to Russian advances listed in the article advocates a more active presence of U.S. Navy ships and submarines in Europe. This policy seems to have gone into effect with the U.S. deploying two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea together with the Los Angeles class submarine USS Springfield.
Both the carriers and USS Springfield arrived in Europe ahead of a NATO summit in Warsaw and the NATO ally exercise BALTOPS 2016 taking place in the Baltic Sea.