The chief advantage of the submarine in warfare is stealth. Their ability to approach a target and strike without detection was originally considered unfair by professional naval officers. Naval officers considered them ungentlemanly up to and during the First World War. Since then their operations have become ever more stealthy, and they can operate in all the world’s oceans, along and within coastal waters and estuaries, unseen and unheard. Submarines are not limited to striking enemy shipping, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles allow them to attack targets on land as well as sea.
They can also deliver troops and intelligence agents, conduct covert surveillance, lay mines and plant listening devices, and deploy divers for diverse missions. They can operate beneath the polar ice, and many have been built with the ability to surface through the ice cap. With each passing year, they become more difficult to detect and track. They have become so deadly that anti-submarine warfare is the primary mission of all the navies in the world. Submarines have completed some of the most stunning operations in the history of warfare, including during the Cold War. Here are ten amazing uses of submarines in warfare.
This is an encore of one of our previous lists, as presented by our YouTube host Simon Whistler. Read the full list!