Romeo, Oh Romeo
Currently, South Korea is in the middle of a massive ASW (anti-submarine-warfare) drill in the Yellow Sea, because this is where a North Korean submarine last year fired on and sank the Cheonan, without the South Korean ship even realizing what had happened. Its an interesting time to tell a story. And this story revolves around a well known antagonist: Romeo.
Specifically, this Romeo, who is particularly lacking in the looks department:
or without the optional walrus nose..
You see, much as you like to think about the latest and greatest military technology being able to defeat any opponent, sometimes the plot line reads a lot more like an '80s plucky comeback story, where the oddballs and cast-offs end up winning the day with knuckle-pucks and trick plays.
Specifically, I am talking about the diesel-electric submarine. And not just modern German, Dutch, and Swedish diesel-electrics (which are both small and very badass), I am talking about old ones. The kind of thing that in the US would be in a WWII museum rather than on active duty. The sort of submarine which existed before the US and Russia figured out the teardrop shaped hull, before computers, before cruise missiles and Tom Clancy. A submarine from when men were men and submarines were long and narrow (err..), with bulbous ballast tanks on their sides(err.....), diesel engines as their heart, and more valves and piping than Saudi Arabia.
You see, this kind of submarine is pretty much the same kind which terrorized the Atlantic convoys of WWII, when the wolfpack reigned supreme. Well, until we broke the enigma code and figured out long range air-support anyway. Every modern submarine, but especially these older style diesel-electric boats owe their design to the Germans, and specifically to the Class XXI Elektroboote. It was the first submarine which was intended to operated underwater, rather than as a surface ship which could submerge for short periods to avoid detection and fire a couple torpedoes. It was called an elektroboote because it had three times the battery capacity of previous U-boats, and also was installed with a snorkel so that it never needed to surface, being able to run the diesels while still hidden by the waves. Lets be honest, is still a scary looking son of a bitch even today.
As we all know, what happened at the end of World War II was that Roosevelt and Stalin got together in a playground with all the Russian scientists and picked teams. After an epic game of rockets-panzers-fission Roosevelt got to go first. What Stalin had found out was that in this game, unlike the more common rock-paper-scissors, fission always wins. While we took the best of the German eggheads, the Russians still got a fair share themselves. Both sides then went home to plan World War Three, in which both sides would have German engineering. Scary.
On the submarine front, both sides took home not only the white-coated boffins, but their very own Class XXI U-boats to play with. And what they found was that if the XXI had been produced in greater numbers (Germany was pretty much unable to make much of anything later in the war) and came out earlier in the war, the Allies would have been screwed. Its one of those many moments in WWII which goes "If X had/hadn't happened, the Germans would have won the war." There are a scary number of them. Both Russia and the US realized that these new U-boats made their designs look like propeller planes against jet-fighters, which come to think of it Germany had managed to do as well.
The US used the XXI to modify many of their existing submarines to the GUPPY class - standing for Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program. The Y was added because it sounded better. They then went about making a whole lot of Guppies. Which is pretty much what Guppies do in real life also.
The Russians decided the the simplest thing to do was not to bother with their old designs at all, and just straight up copy the XXI. After a decade of pretty much doing that, Russia decided to update the design significantly, and came up with the the Romeo, first launched in '57. Though when you look at the stats side-by-side, you would be hard-pressed to see they had done much at all. As a modern comparison, I also mixed in one of the best new European diesel-electric subs (which are much more modern).
At this point, Wikipedia helpfully tells us that the Romeo is obsolete. Which it is, in a way, but it also isn't. Its like calling the B-52 obsolete because the B-2 is so very far beyond it. Absolutely. But if I wanted to drop a lot of bombs.. well.. I could still use the B-52. And it would be a lot cheaper than the $1 billion B-2. Which, incidentally, is 1/3rd of what the most advanced submarine in the world cost - the almighty Seawolf.
It really is almighty. It runs circles around other submarines, calls them names and then when it wants to, it disappears. The Seawolf is so quiet that when it first came out, America's boffins (oddly mostly of German descent... kidding..) realized that you could track it because it made less noise than the water it displaced. They had to add some natural noises back in. The Seawolf can stay at sea for years, never needing to come home. It can roam all of the world's oceans as the ultimate predator, the top of the food chain. It can find and hunt anything, but nothing can hunt it.
It is also so goddamn expensive the the US, the richest nation on earth, decided that after building just three of them, they could not afford any more.
But the big reason that Seawolf does not make the Romeo obsolete is this: the Romeo and the nations which use it have a completely different objective. Sure, the Seawolf can roam all the world's oceans for months on end without ever even surfacing. Good on ya mate. What China, Vietnam, North Korea and Iran are all looking for is not some God-Tuna, but rather surprise attacks and defense against invasion. And what you need for this are ships which work well in the shallow seas of South-East Asia and the continental shelf in general - the littoral zone.
Nuclear attack subs are big, at about 7-10,000 tons, they are 4 or 5 times the size of diesel-electrics. And size does matter, because in shallow seas such as the Yellow Sea, a small submarine is an asset. It can sit in shallow areas, running only on its batteries. In some cases, with their flat rather than round hulls, you can sit Romeos right on the bottom. Nuclear subs are quiet because they don't have to run noisy diesel engines. But batteries are even quieter than nuclear, they just don't last very long. This is perfect for defending a coastline or conducting surprise raids against neighbors. In military jargon, what the US is always doing is "forward deployment." What these nations want is "sea denial."
Submarines are the perfect assassin's mace: they cost relatively little and are quite simple, but can take down much bigger, more powerful, more expensive adversaries.
It is why these nations have so many of the little guys. North Korea has 22. China has "30" but another 21 "Ming" class which are identical, but locally built - and they were building them up until 2001. Related classes are used by Iran, Libya, India, Pakistan, etc etc.
Since then, China has instead been building a lot of Kilos, which incidentally are also used by Vietnam and Iran. A much more modern design, but still small and relatively cheap, they are a very clear threat to the US and will take over from the Romeo and its cousins as the most common submarine in the coming years.
Imagine for a second this scenario: North Korea, using an "obsolete" Romeo submarine sinks a South Korean ship. Lets call it the "Cheonan." South Korea, as a retaliation, runs military drills close to the disputed sea-border. Enraged, Kim Il Jong Il Kim puts on his favorite sunglasses and goes to war. China decides that this would be a great time to retake Taiwan and the Spratly Islands, and does so. When South Korea launches its far superior naval fleet against the North, it finds lying in wait 24 silent-as-night submarines. Submarines barely more advanced than those used in WWII. In the shallow waters of the coastal areas, the noise of waves and rocks make it almost impossible to use sonar to find these submarines. Unable to locate more than a few of the submarines, the South Koreans are forced to keep their fleet far offshore, where it is little help in the raging land battle.
As this is going on, the US-launches its Pacific fleet to retake Taiwan. The largest, most sophisticated battle group ever launched sets sail. Though it has the latest in ASW equipment and is protected by four or five of the best submarines in the world, in the shallow waters off Taiwan the small and hard-to-detect diesel-electrics manage to slip the net, and fire upon the Nimitz class carrier at its heart. The carrier, the largest and most capable piece of military equipment the world has ever seen, is sunk by a ship so dated it would be more recognizable to the great-grandparents of many on board. While US ASW tactics are able to sink many of the Chinese subs, 30-40 of the original Romeo and Kilo class ships remain operational and hidden in the shallow waters. The planed ground assault is called off after the Wasp and Tarawa amphibious assault ships are sunk. With thousands of lives lost, and little to show for it, US public support crumbles and the US negotiates a face-saving settlement of some form. The hegemonic reign of the US is over, China is now the world's superpower, all on the backs of a WWII submarine.
The scenario is no so far-fetched, as it is one China is heavily invested in. China plans to have over 200 submarines by 2050, many of them small, cheap diesel-electrics - though more modern than the Romeos/Mings, these will mostly be contemporary to US/Russian designs of the 60's and 70's. The goal? Protect its shores from US carriers (by the same date, the US will have 30 or so attack submarines total).
A few years ago a Chinese Song class surfaced in the middle of a US carrier group. The carrier group had no idea it was there. By surfacing, the Song was telling the Americans "gotcha." If this were war, the result would have been exactly as I described above. The Song is the next-generation version of the Ming/Romeo, and though more modern, still "obsolete."
In 2006, NATO conducted a simulated amphibious assault off the cost of France (because somehow, France will get invaded and beaten again - you know its going to happen). To simulate going up against a Romeo or Kilo class submarine, likely what NATO will be facing in a large-scale invasion, they used a more modern but still similar Dutch Walrus Class submarine. Just one Walrus Class submarine. In the simulation, that single submarine sank the lead carrier in the exercise, the HMS Invincible, whose purpose in life is-ironically-ASW. The little Dutch ship was so good at shutting down the invasion that the whole exercise had to be re-run. Without it. A more realistic exercise would of course to have been to re-run it with 20 more. But alas, no one has that many. Except the Chinese or the North Koreans. After this debacle the US asked to borrow the little sub for two years.
In the end the Navy stuck to what it knew: after years of running circles around Russian subs which since the 60's would put to shame the Romeo it refused to accept there was a credible threat posed by these small and decrepit looking vessels. The US Navy after all has the largest, most expensive, most powerful, most capable submarines in the world. And as we all know, that means they are invincible. What threat could a submarine straight out of the history books be?
Specifically, this Romeo, who is particularly lacking in the looks department:
or without the optional walrus nose..
You see, much as you like to think about the latest and greatest military technology being able to defeat any opponent, sometimes the plot line reads a lot more like an '80s plucky comeback story, where the oddballs and cast-offs end up winning the day with knuckle-pucks and trick plays.
Specifically, I am talking about the diesel-electric submarine. And not just modern German, Dutch, and Swedish diesel-electrics (which are both small and very badass), I am talking about old ones. The kind of thing that in the US would be in a WWII museum rather than on active duty. The sort of submarine which existed before the US and Russia figured out the teardrop shaped hull, before computers, before cruise missiles and Tom Clancy. A submarine from when men were men and submarines were long and narrow (err..), with bulbous ballast tanks on their sides(err.....), diesel engines as their heart, and more valves and piping than Saudi Arabia.
You see, this kind of submarine is pretty much the same kind which terrorized the Atlantic convoys of WWII, when the wolfpack reigned supreme. Well, until we broke the enigma code and figured out long range air-support anyway. Every modern submarine, but especially these older style diesel-electric boats owe their design to the Germans, and specifically to the Class XXI Elektroboote. It was the first submarine which was intended to operated underwater, rather than as a surface ship which could submerge for short periods to avoid detection and fire a couple torpedoes. It was called an elektroboote because it had three times the battery capacity of previous U-boats, and also was installed with a snorkel so that it never needed to surface, being able to run the diesels while still hidden by the waves. Lets be honest, is still a scary looking son of a bitch even today.
As we all know, what happened at the end of World War II was that Roosevelt and Stalin got together in a playground with all the Russian scientists and picked teams. After an epic game of rockets-panzers-fission Roosevelt got to go first. What Stalin had found out was that in this game, unlike the more common rock-paper-scissors, fission always wins. While we took the best of the German eggheads, the Russians still got a fair share themselves. Both sides then went home to plan World War Three, in which both sides would have German engineering. Scary.
On the submarine front, both sides took home not only the white-coated boffins, but their very own Class XXI U-boats to play with. And what they found was that if the XXI had been produced in greater numbers (Germany was pretty much unable to make much of anything later in the war) and came out earlier in the war, the Allies would have been screwed. Its one of those many moments in WWII which goes "If X had/hadn't happened, the Germans would have won the war." There are a scary number of them. Both Russia and the US realized that these new U-boats made their designs look like propeller planes against jet-fighters, which come to think of it Germany had managed to do as well.
The US used the XXI to modify many of their existing submarines to the GUPPY class - standing for Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program. The Y was added because it sounded better. They then went about making a whole lot of Guppies. Which is pretty much what Guppies do in real life also.
The Russians decided the the simplest thing to do was not to bother with their old designs at all, and just straight up copy the XXI. After a decade of pretty much doing that, Russia decided to update the design significantly, and came up with the the Romeo, first launched in '57. Though when you look at the stats side-by-side, you would be hard-pressed to see they had done much at all. As a modern comparison, I also mixed in one of the best new European diesel-electric subs (which are much more modern).
Class overview Name: Type XXI U-boat Completed: 118 General characteristics Class and type: Submarine Displacement: 1,621 tonnes standard 2,100 tonnes full load Length: 76.7 m (251 ft 8 in) Beam: 8 m (26 ft 3 in) Draught: 5.3 m (17 ft 5 in) Propulsion: Diesel/Electric 2× MAN M6V40/46KBB supercharged 6-cylinder diesel engines, 4,000 PS (2.9 MW) 2× SSW GU365/30 double acting electric motors, 5,000 PS (3.7 MW) 2× SSW GV232/28 silent running electric motors, 226 PS (0.166 MW) Speed: Surfaced: 15.6 kn (28.9 km/h) (diesel) 17.9 kn (33.2 km/h) (electric) Submerged: 17.2 kn (31.9 km/h) (electric) 6.1 kn (11.3 km/h) (silent running motors) Range: Surfaced: 15,500 nmi (28,700 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h) Submerged: 340 nmi (630 km) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h) Complement: 57 officers and men Armament: 6 × torpedo tubes 4 x 20 mm cannon | Class overview Romeo Builders: Krasnoye Completed: 133 General characteristics Displacement: 1,475 tons surfaced 1,830 tons submerged Length: 76.6 m (251 ft 3 in) Beam: 6.7 m (22 ft) Draught: 5.2 m (17 ft 1 in) Propulsion: Two diesels delivering 2.94 MW (4000 shp) with two electric motors driving two shafts. Speed: 15.2 knots surfaced 13 knots submerged Range: 14,484km (9,000 miles) at 9 knots Complement: 54 men (10 officers) Armament: 8 × 533mm (21in) torpedo tubes. Six located in the bows and two in the stern. 14 × 533mm (21in) anti ship or anti submarine torpedoes (including Yu-4 and Yu-1 torpedoes) or 28 mines | German Type 214 Class overview General characteristics Displacement: 1,690 t (surfaced), 1,860 t (submerged) Length: 65.0 m Beam: 6.3 m Draught: 6.0 m Propulsion: Diesel-electric, fuel cell AIP, low noise skew back propeller Speed: 12 kt surfaced 20 kt submerged Range: 12,000 miles (19,300 km) surfaced 420 nmi (780 km) @ 8 kt 1,248 nmi (2,311 km) @ 4 kt Endurance: 84 days Test depth: 250m (400m theoretical) Complement: 5 officers + 22 crew Armament: (8) 533 mm torpedo tubes, (4) subharpoon-capable |
At this point, Wikipedia helpfully tells us that the Romeo is obsolete. Which it is, in a way, but it also isn't. Its like calling the B-52 obsolete because the B-2 is so very far beyond it. Absolutely. But if I wanted to drop a lot of bombs.. well.. I could still use the B-52. And it would be a lot cheaper than the $1 billion B-2. Which, incidentally, is 1/3rd of what the most advanced submarine in the world cost - the almighty Seawolf.
It really is almighty. It runs circles around other submarines, calls them names and then when it wants to, it disappears. The Seawolf is so quiet that when it first came out, America's boffins (oddly mostly of German descent... kidding..) realized that you could track it because it made less noise than the water it displaced. They had to add some natural noises back in. The Seawolf can stay at sea for years, never needing to come home. It can roam all of the world's oceans as the ultimate predator, the top of the food chain. It can find and hunt anything, but nothing can hunt it.
It is also so goddamn expensive the the US, the richest nation on earth, decided that after building just three of them, they could not afford any more.
But the big reason that Seawolf does not make the Romeo obsolete is this: the Romeo and the nations which use it have a completely different objective. Sure, the Seawolf can roam all the world's oceans for months on end without ever even surfacing. Good on ya mate. What China, Vietnam, North Korea and Iran are all looking for is not some God-Tuna, but rather surprise attacks and defense against invasion. And what you need for this are ships which work well in the shallow seas of South-East Asia and the continental shelf in general - the littoral zone.
Nuclear attack subs are big, at about 7-10,000 tons, they are 4 or 5 times the size of diesel-electrics. And size does matter, because in shallow seas such as the Yellow Sea, a small submarine is an asset. It can sit in shallow areas, running only on its batteries. In some cases, with their flat rather than round hulls, you can sit Romeos right on the bottom. Nuclear subs are quiet because they don't have to run noisy diesel engines. But batteries are even quieter than nuclear, they just don't last very long. This is perfect for defending a coastline or conducting surprise raids against neighbors. In military jargon, what the US is always doing is "forward deployment." What these nations want is "sea denial."
Submarines are the perfect assassin's mace: they cost relatively little and are quite simple, but can take down much bigger, more powerful, more expensive adversaries.
It is why these nations have so many of the little guys. North Korea has 22. China has "30" but another 21 "Ming" class which are identical, but locally built - and they were building them up until 2001. Related classes are used by Iran, Libya, India, Pakistan, etc etc.
Since then, China has instead been building a lot of Kilos, which incidentally are also used by Vietnam and Iran. A much more modern design, but still small and relatively cheap, they are a very clear threat to the US and will take over from the Romeo and its cousins as the most common submarine in the coming years.
Imagine for a second this scenario: North Korea, using an "obsolete" Romeo submarine sinks a South Korean ship. Lets call it the "Cheonan." South Korea, as a retaliation, runs military drills close to the disputed sea-border. Enraged, Kim Il Jong Il Kim puts on his favorite sunglasses and goes to war. China decides that this would be a great time to retake Taiwan and the Spratly Islands, and does so. When South Korea launches its far superior naval fleet against the North, it finds lying in wait 24 silent-as-night submarines. Submarines barely more advanced than those used in WWII. In the shallow waters of the coastal areas, the noise of waves and rocks make it almost impossible to use sonar to find these submarines. Unable to locate more than a few of the submarines, the South Koreans are forced to keep their fleet far offshore, where it is little help in the raging land battle.
As this is going on, the US-launches its Pacific fleet to retake Taiwan. The largest, most sophisticated battle group ever launched sets sail. Though it has the latest in ASW equipment and is protected by four or five of the best submarines in the world, in the shallow waters off Taiwan the small and hard-to-detect diesel-electrics manage to slip the net, and fire upon the Nimitz class carrier at its heart. The carrier, the largest and most capable piece of military equipment the world has ever seen, is sunk by a ship so dated it would be more recognizable to the great-grandparents of many on board. While US ASW tactics are able to sink many of the Chinese subs, 30-40 of the original Romeo and Kilo class ships remain operational and hidden in the shallow waters. The planed ground assault is called off after the Wasp and Tarawa amphibious assault ships are sunk. With thousands of lives lost, and little to show for it, US public support crumbles and the US negotiates a face-saving settlement of some form. The hegemonic reign of the US is over, China is now the world's superpower, all on the backs of a WWII submarine.
The scenario is no so far-fetched, as it is one China is heavily invested in. China plans to have over 200 submarines by 2050, many of them small, cheap diesel-electrics - though more modern than the Romeos/Mings, these will mostly be contemporary to US/Russian designs of the 60's and 70's. The goal? Protect its shores from US carriers (by the same date, the US will have 30 or so attack submarines total).
A few years ago a Chinese Song class surfaced in the middle of a US carrier group. The carrier group had no idea it was there. By surfacing, the Song was telling the Americans "gotcha." If this were war, the result would have been exactly as I described above. The Song is the next-generation version of the Ming/Romeo, and though more modern, still "obsolete."
In 2006, NATO conducted a simulated amphibious assault off the cost of France (because somehow, France will get invaded and beaten again - you know its going to happen). To simulate going up against a Romeo or Kilo class submarine, likely what NATO will be facing in a large-scale invasion, they used a more modern but still similar Dutch Walrus Class submarine. Just one Walrus Class submarine. In the simulation, that single submarine sank the lead carrier in the exercise, the HMS Invincible, whose purpose in life is-ironically-ASW. The little Dutch ship was so good at shutting down the invasion that the whole exercise had to be re-run. Without it. A more realistic exercise would of course to have been to re-run it with 20 more. But alas, no one has that many. Except the Chinese or the North Koreans. After this debacle the US asked to borrow the little sub for two years.
In the end the Navy stuck to what it knew: after years of running circles around Russian subs which since the 60's would put to shame the Romeo it refused to accept there was a credible threat posed by these small and decrepit looking vessels. The US Navy after all has the largest, most expensive, most powerful, most capable submarines in the world. And as we all know, that means they are invincible. What threat could a submarine straight out of the history books be?
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