At the annual meeting of the US Naval Submarine Alliance held in Arlington, Virginia, Jeffrey Jablon, commander of the US Pacific Fleet's submarine force, clearly revealed that the US Department of Defense plans to expand its submarine combat capability on Guam in the next five to ten years and optimize the US military's combat force in the western Pacific. In this regard, the US Navy plans to increase the frequency of nuclear submarines to Guam as a "hedge against China's growing naval power"; At the same time, it will promote the development of medium-sized unmanned underwater vehicles that can be launched by nuclear submarine torpedo tubes, so that in the future naval battlefield against China, the "unmanned underwater submarine carrier" can become a stand-in for US nuclear submarines on the battlefield.
Optimize power based on Guam
Guam is the westernmost submarine base of the United States in the Pacific Ocean, located in the southeast of the mainland, 3,000 kilometers from the mainland, 9,800 kilometers from the United States, 2,500 kilometers from the Yokosuka military base in Japan, 2,600 kilometers from the Okinawa military base in Japan, 2,550 kilometers from the Subic Bay military base in the Philippines, and 2,900 kilometers from the Busan military base in South Korea. From a geographical comprehensive point of view, Guam is the bridgehead of the US Navy, and in the past, due to the limited threat of Chinese missiles to Guam, Guam became the core of its second island chain to blockade China, but with the rapid development of China's missiles, a major heavy weapon, especially the long-range precision strike force represented by the DF-26 ballistic missile with a range of 4,000 kilometers has been greatly enhanced, not only Guam is no longer difficult to become the fulcrum that the United States relies on, but also various naval warships cruising throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. All radiated under the killer DF-26.
However, from the perspective of practical needs, especially in the context of US politicians constantly clamoring for the so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy", Guam's special geographical location and geographical conditions are still a strategic contact point for the United States. However, the US Navy previously stationed only two old attack nuclear submarines, the USS Key West and the USS Asheville, in the Guam area, compared with the huge configuration of more than 60 nuclear submarines of the US military, it is difficult to support its need to show the US strategic center of gravity, so the US military announced at the end of last year that it would complete the deployment of 5 nuclear submarines on Guam by the end of this year, such as urgently transferring troops from other bases to support Guam, and even directly transferring individual nuclear submarine home ports to Guam bases. This demonstrates that the U.S. military has focused its strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific region. As a result, the "Los Angeles"-class attack nuclear submarine "Jefferson City" changed its defense from the Pearl Harbor-Hickam Joint Base to Guam in December last year, and the "Springfield" and "Annapolis" two "Los Angeles" class attack nuclear submarines changed their original home port to Apra Naval Base Guam in April this year, and for a time five "Los Angeles" attack nuclear submarines gathered in Guam at the same time.
According to Jabloon, "Going forward, we will expand Guam's submarine combat capabilities to optimize our presence and combat forces in the Western Pacific. This includes enhancing our maintenance capacity through amenities, infrastructure and personnel, building additional terminals and services, and expanding our shore-based training facilities in Guam. At present, in addition to deploying five attack submarines in the Guam Operational Area in the Western Pacific, the US Navy plans to expand Guam's submarine force, and it is reported that at least three more submarines are preparing for deployment in order to perform battlefield patrols while enhancing "missions critical to national security."
Take submarines as the radiation layout
Under the deterrence of the DF-26 ballistic missile, which is described as "Guam killer" by the US "Missile Threat" website, the US Navy's various types of surface ships have greatly limited the space for activities in the Western Pacific region, especially under the joint control of medium- and long-range ballistic missiles such as the Dongfeng-21 and Dongfeng-31, and the US Navy's control over the traditional interests of the sea around China is getting weaker and weaker. In order to alleviate this pressure as soon as possible, or to find an effective way to break the situation, the United States has targeted the submarine force hiding at the bottom of the sea, in other words, to a certain extent, the United States has to increase the number of nuclear submarines, precisely to avoid the "aircraft carrier killer".
Judging from the current overall deployment of submarines of the US Navy, it has a total of 73 nuclear-powered submarines, including 55 attack nuclear submarines, 18 Ohio-class strategic ballistic missile nuclear submarines, and 20 nuclear submarines currently deployed in the Pacific region. This time, the US Navy has threatened to strengthen the deployment of submarines in the Guam area, rely on submarines to re-optimize the layout of combat forces, take the opportunity to expand the infrastructure related to submarine deployment in Guam, improve Guam's shore-based training capabilities, and a series of measures to enhance its submarine combat capabilities in the region. For example, from an operational point of view, the United States can use its relationship with Australia to adjust more underwater combat forces to advance to Guam and strategic bombing forces to northern Australia, which can greatly reduce its joint response time.
The core of the United States' high investment in building the combat power of the Guam base is to have sufficient counterbalance capital for future conflicts or confrontations with China. But realistically, the United States may be wishful thinking to increase the size of submarines to increase its strength against China, after all, the function of submarines is not as powerful as legendary. The clearest example of Hitler's unbalanced naval development during World War II is the final loss of war due to a serious overestimation of submarine capabilities. Today, with the rapid development of modern detection technology, underwater submarines may only have one chance to emerge.
Long-term planning with China as an enemy
The US military generally believes that considering "China's evolving naval strength", the future combat capability of the US Navy to attack the nuclear submarine force from Guam must be further strengthened, and the current US Navy's nuclear submarine force has reached a turning point, and the next decade is a "critical and decisive" decade. In response, the US official boasted that "sea control and sea denial from the bottom of the sea are one of our core advantages, and we will not yield to competitors." ”
The Navy is once again planning to further expand its submarine force over the next five to ten years to optimize its combat capabilities in the Western Pacific, coinciding with what some Navy officials have called the "most dangerous decade." As Jablon said, "We are at an inflection point. It was a crucial and decisive decade. This is my primary concern as commander of the submarine force of the Pacific Fleet. We are in the most dangerous decade of our decade. "What is the source of the danger, it is not difficult to find from the United States' long-term targeting, it refers to China, which explains the deep meaning of such a "long-term plan" of the US Navy.
Following the recent clear emphasis of the United States in the new National Defense Strategy document on "responding to China's challenges to the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific maritime region" as a priority, upgrading Australian air bases and planning to deploy B-52 bombers, this time it has proposed to increase the attack nuclear submarine force, and even increase its unmanned underwater combat capability, which will surely further amplify the crisis of the situation in the western Pacific region in the future, and China urgently needs to make early predictions and full preparations.
Author: Huang Yonggang Peng Jinhua
Editor: Fu Xinyi
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0731-84570864
Produced by: "National Defense Education Weekly" All-Media Center