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Undersea threats to the homeland have concerned U.S. leaders since long-range submarines joined enemy navies about a century ago. In the First and Second World Wars, U-boats attacked shipping and frightened Americans along the U.S. East Coast, who watched helplessly as oil tankers burned offshore after being torpedoed. During the Cold War, Soviet diesel and nuclear submarines created the specter of unwarned, "decapitating" cruise or ballistic missile attacks on U.S. leaders and command centers.
But the undersea threat did not end with the Cold War. Since the Berlin Wall fell, dozens of countries fielded new submarine forces and existing submarine powers modernized their undersea fleets.
In response to the growing number and sophistication of submarines, many navies are pursuing improved anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities. For its part, the U.S. Navy is fielding new sub-hunting P-8A maritime patrol aircraft, Littoral Combat Ships, and unmanned systems such as the DARPA-built Sea Hunter unmanned surface vehicle and the Transformational Reliable Acoustic Path passive sonar array.