Bryan Clark, a former U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officer and analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, agreed with Hendrix that submarines might be the best option during high-end combat operations. “Against the Chinese A2/AD complex, I agree undersea systems and a long-range survivable UCLASS/UCAV are the most viable approaches for strike and ASuW [anti-surface warfare] in wartime,” he said.
But submarines do have limitations, Clark pointed out. “In general submarines are constrained by their limited situational awareness, slow speed, and lack of self defense. This makes them likely to evade when counter detected and/or attacked,” Clark said. “Our SSNs [attack submarines] are very susceptible to this, because they are expensive, important capital assets. Our commanders will choose to evade and come back later rather than stand and fight.’’