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CNO bullish on subs

MCLEAN, Va. — Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead jokes that his fellow surface warfare officers believe he’s gone to the “dark side,” but he’s proud of it.

“I love submarines,” he said Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Naval Submarine League.

Roughead said in a former job as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, he considered the undersea force his “killer arrow in the quiver,” and not a Cold War leftover as some perceived.

“As a commander in the Pacific you rely on submarines more than anything else,” he said. “There’s nothing that represents the ultimate in stealth like a U.S. Navy submarine.”

Submarines are used extensively these days for intelligence gathering and surveillance and now as CNO, Roughead said he has heard more debriefs from submarine commanders home from patrol than from returning — and higher-ranking — strike group commanders.

Calling American submariners the “most professional and competent force we have,” he said the community nonetheless faces a growing fleet of undersea competition with 40 nations operating 350 subs with a projected 280 more on the way.

“They are not bush league submarines,” he said, noting that not all are allies. “These are pretty capable boats we’ll have to deal with.”

Roughead also said the Navy needs to “move aggressively” toward fielding unmanned underwater vehicles, as well as unmanned aircraft.

The theme of this year’s two-day event is the operational debut of the four Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines converted to carry a high load of conventional ordnance and to conduct larger force special operations missions. The SSGNs Ohio and Florida are currently on deployment, Michigan will deploy in the coming weeks and Georgia deploys in 2009.