> Given the strategic importance of submarine stealth, Gower asks, “Why would any country want to detect and track submarines? It’s only something you’d do if y

> Given the strategic importance of submarine stealth, Gower asks, “Why would any country want to detect and track submarines? It’s only something you’d do if you want to make a nuclear-armed power nervous.” The US had the capability to detect and track Soviet subs in large swaths of the oceans for decades using SOSUS and other sensor networks. https://dosits.org/people-and-sound/history-of-underwater-acoustics/the-cold-war-history-of-the-sound-surveillance-system-sosus/ https://dosits.org/people-and-sound/history-of-underwater-ac... During that time, the US did not exercise their ability to wipe out the Soviet Union. Would the Soviet Union or Putin have pursued the same course of action if they had such an advantage? This is why it is important to keep a technological edge over authoritarian governments. Such governments are not morally equivalent to democracies. They have radically different goals, and radically different value systems. SOSUS was eventually betrayed by the Walker spy ring, and the Soviets ended up making much quieter subs. Putin now has a new submarine that can launch nuclear powered torpedos from hundreds of miles away. These torpedos have 100Mt warheads. I sure hope we can track this thing and neutralize it, because there is no balistic missile launch to detect and counter.