Grossenbacher Discusses Current State and Future of Submarine Force

Excerpted from NSL UPDATE 07-21-2003

Since 07-24-03

By Journalist 1st Class (SW/AW) Mark A. Savage, Navy Region Northeast Public Affairs
 
GROTON, Conn. (NNS) -- Vice Adm. John J. Grossenbacher, Commander,  Naval Submarine Forces, held an all-hands call with Naval Submarine  Base New London's submarine community to discuss the current state of  the submarine force and where it's heading in the future.> Commending submariners for the conduct of missions and operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom,  Grossenbacher reminded Sailors of the ongoing anti-terrorism and force protection issues facing the submarine force in the global war on  terror.

"The key to being successful in this part of the war," Grossenbacher said, "is people having their heads in the game, and remembering that  terrorists succeed by doing the unexpected. They only have to be  successful once in a very long time to be motivated to keep doing it." Also unexpected will be future submarine operating areas. Grossenbacher noted that as in the current conflict, submarines and submariners today are operating in much different environments than those who have gone before.

"During the Cold War and most of the modern era, submarines operated in waters that weren't salvageable, rescueable or survivable,"  Grossenbacher said. "Now submarines spend most of their time in shallow water, and places where there are a lot of surface ships. The possibility of a collision is much higher. The probability that we could wind up with a damaged submarine sitting on the bottom in an area where we could rescue the crew is much higher, and our level of proficiency and the reality which we treat submarine survivability, escape and rescue is much higher."

As operating areas are changing, so too are platforms and technology. Grossenbacher highlighted two key programs in these areas: the SSBN  conversion to SSGN program (conversion from ballistic carrying submarine to guided-missile carrying) and the new Advanced Rapid COTS  (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) Insertion (ARCI). ARCI allows commercially produced software and upgrades to be purchased and installed on submarines, resulting in greatly improved system and operating opportunities.

"Now we can record everything the operator does, and see whether or not he optimized the use of the tools he had," Grossenbacher said. "That's powerful for two reasons. We can go back and train the operator if he didn't do as well as he should have. The second thing is we can take this knowledge, go to the developers and say the operator did everything right; the problem is that we didn't get enough performance out of the sonar. We've never been able to do that before. They (software engineers) can write the software that we could never write before, because we didn't have the memory or the number crunching capacity to do that. So we can make the sensors much better."

According to Grossenbacher, the Virginia-class submarines under construction are taking a big step in this direction. In the control room, "there's nothing but universal displays. You sit down in front of one of these displays, and you could be a radio operator, sonar technician, the fire control technician, you could look out the periscope, or you could put them all in split-screen in one place. That's a huge change for the submarine force. It's going to give us an enormous increase in performance. The hard part is how do we train ourselves to do this. That's kind of a nice challenge to have."

Submarine Sailors attending the call were interested by many of the topics Grossenbacher discussed. Some Sailors felt they could directly relate to the changes that are coming in the future and look forward to being a part of those changes. "Vice Adm. Grossenbacher had a lot of good information in terms of where we're going with the submarine force in the future, what we've been testing with and what we'll have to be doing five to 10 years from now," said Fire Control Technician Seaman Christopher Gomez, of USS Memphis (SSN 691). "One thing that really jumped out at me was how the mission of the submarine is changing. I find the intelligence part of it most interesting."

Through all the exercises, innovations, conversions and developments, the one thing that has not changed is Grossenbacher's trust in the  abilities and dedication of the men who operate these submarines. "I believe you (submariners) are the best, and I believe our submarines are the best," Grossenbacher said. "I also believe this to be true: you don't stay the best by telling yourself how good you are. You stay the best by working hard.

"Ours is a dangerous and difficult business. You have to work hard just to keep safe. There's a whole bunch of people in the world who are ready, willing and able to challenge us. The call has come in the past and it will continue to come, when our country needs you to be the best. So keep doing it."