Friedman, Norman Cold War Anti-Submarine Warfare

As hostilities between China and Russia on the one hand and the West on the other intensify and the Chinese navy grows, the United States finds itself increasingly in a situation it already experienced during the Cold War. Once again, the US is dependent on access to the world, and once again, a potential enemy is building a huge navy to cut off the US, so that the US may have to fight for the seas. In this context, it is helpful to look back at the most similar analogy the battle against the Soviet navy. This book brings together for the first time enough declassified documents and enough information published by the Russians during their brief period of openness to tell the story of the great anti-submarine warfare (ASW) battle during the Cold War. This book explains what happened and how the West won that battle. Even though technology has changed, history is the best guide for future operations and for understanding how different strategies and tactics can influence outcomes. Post-Cold War anti-submarine warfare experience is far less relevant, as it took place on a much smaller scale and in waters very different from the oceans of the Cold War. Unfortunately, much of what happened during the Cold War has been forgotten. The senior officers who were knowledgeable about anti-submarine warfare have long since retired. Author Norman Friedman is exceptionally well suited to examine what happened and why. He has published books not only on Cold War ships and aircraft, but also on Cold War strategy, including the award-winning Fifty-Year War, as well as on Cold War naval weapons and sensors. He has written the history of the development of US and British submarines and ASW surface ships during the Cold War based on declassified documents. In this book, he emphasises that there was no uniform ASW strategy during the Cold War, as the nature of warfare changed significantly over time. This diversity of topics makes it possible to draw alternative parallels with the present and the future.