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Life after a successful submarine attack may not be long for the submarine but a great deal of damage can be done before the sub is destroyed. Today with small nuclear warheads on torpedoes the sub does not have to get even close, all he has to do is hear the carrier group in the distance and then put one torpedo in the middle of the group and get them all.

When the torpedo is heard in the water it is too late to do anything about it.

All that being said the Navy knows about this threat that is why with an aircraft carrier group there are always sonabouys being dropped all around the group within torpedo range. It is very difficult to avoid detection with active sonar, it is especially difficult to avoid detection within several hundred miles of the US coastline, especially the the east coast where we have permanent sonar detection blanketing hundreds perhaps thousands of square miles.

Operating on the sea is dangerous during wartime. Operating under the sea during wartime is especially dangerous. The men who operate submarines during wartime are special heroes, they know they will likely die doing their work to protect the country but they do it anyway.

I lived on a Polaris boat during peace time in the 60’s, while not the safest place in the world I never really considered it dangerous but if a war would have started I knew the end would come relatively soon. We were expendable as long as we took a lot of tonnage with us or a lot of cities with us.