Amid concerns of increasing Russian and Chinese underwater activity, the US Navy is set to introduce attack submarines to counter the potential threats. Vice Admiral Charles Richard, who told forces to “prepare for battle” back in August, has unveiled plans to ensure all submarines are combat-ready to take on the two nations. Mr Richard has moved ahead with proposals to refocus training and certification on combat and develop new tools and concepts to support high-end warfighting.
Mr Richard said on Wednesday, while talking to the Naval Submarine League at its annual conference, the plan – named the Commander’s Intent for the US Submarine Force and Supporting Organisations – led to an overhaul of training for the attack submarine force.
He said: “We have restructured and retuned the fast attack training period to ensure that we’re ready for that high-end fight, including restructuring what we used to call the Tactical Readiness Evaluation, and it is now a Combat Readiness Evaluation to ensure we’re focused on warfighting.”
He added: “We’ve updated the deployment certification process to eliminate duplication, put the right focus in the right place.
“I’ll tell you that I am driving to put competition in everything we do inside the submarine force.
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
“I want to produce winners and losers just like we do in battle; it does you no good to be at standards if your opponent is more at standards than you are.
“You still lose, and in this competition, you may not come home.”
The admiral compared the plan for the submarine forces to create an advanced training regimen for attack submarine crews similar to the Navy’s Topgun program for fighter pilots.
Topgun puts selected aviators through a challenging combination of classroom courses and flight training.
Mr Richards wants a submarine aggressor squadron made up of active duty and reserve sailors and civilians for other Navy submariners to train against.
Topgun has its own dedicated and highly trained “red air” adversary component to provide mock opponents for its students.
Mr Richard said: “We’re taking a page from naval aviation and we’re establishing an aggressor squadron with a team that will become experts in employing our adversaries’ potential capabilities and then set them up to be able to go head-to-head with our units so that we’re always training against what we think is the highest fidelity simulation I can give them in terms of what they might be able to expect when they go into combat.”
This is “a cadre that does nothing but emulate red in all of our training and certification exercises,” he added.