The Cold War threat of all-out nuclear war has long since faded. Submarine operations remain potentially hazardous. The Cold War threat of all-out nuclear war has long since faded. Submarine operations remain potentially hazardous. The Navy says yes, but not because it expects to use them to launch nuclear missiles across the globe.
Skeptics say the subs are Cold War relics in search of a mission.
A retired Navy admiral and frequent critic of the service, Carroll is contemptuous of the argument that a bigger submarine fleet is needed for intelligence purposes. This commitment comes a decade after Congress halted the Navy's building of new Seawolf attack submarines at three instead of the planned 29. The Russian sub fleet, once the largest in the world, has not evolved so much as it has eroded. Its numbers have dropped from about 200 during the Cold War to about 20 today, including 11 Oscar II-class submarines of the type that sank in the Barents Sea. Because of a lack of resources for training, maintenance and modernization, Russian submarines spend far more time in port than they do at sea.