New coastal submarine concepts get ready to break the surface

The modern non-nuclear submarine is acknowledged to be a highly potent sea denial and intelligence gathering asset and, in the right hands, a very challenging adversary for even the best-equipped anti-submarine warfare (ASW) forces.

Even 26 years on, the UK Royal Navy's (RN's) experience in the 1982 Falklands (Malvinas) conflict serves as a salutary reminder of how difficult a prey the conventional submarine can be.

Although it deployed a large taskforce equipped with a full range of ASW capabilities, it failed to detect the San Luis, the single Argentine Type 209 conventional submarine deployed in theatre.

It is believed that only a faulty fire-control system prevented the submarine from executing a successful attack on an RN frigate operating close inshore.

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