Seabed warfare is
undersea warfare
Underwater warfare is one of the three operational areas of naval warfare, the others being surface warfare and aerial warfare. It refers to combat conducted underwater such as:
*Actions by submarines actions, and anti-submarine warfare, i.e. w ...
which takes place on or in relation to the
seabed
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'.
The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...
.
Overview
Seabed warfare is defined as “operations to, from and across the ocean floor.”
In general the target of seabed warfare is infrastructure in place on the seabed such as power cables, telecom cables, or natural resource extraction systems. Seabed warfare capabilities are expensive and because of that significant capabilities are only possessed by major powers.
Conflicts on the seabed can be both conventional and unconventional, the latter encompassing non-kinetic approaches such as
lawfare
Lawfare is the use of legal systems and institutions to damage or delegitimize an opponent, or to deter individual's usage of their legal rights.''Unrestricted Warfare''p. 55
The term may refer to the use of legal systems and principles against ...
.
France has integrated seabed warfare into their military strategy with the concept of Seabed Control Operations which involves expanding their existing mine warfare and hydro-oceanography capabilities to deal with a more comprehensive spectrum of threats.
Platforms
The American Block VI
Virginia-class submarine
The ''Virginia'' class, also known as the SSN-774 class, is a class of nuclear-powered cruise missile fast-attack submarines, in service in the United States Navy. Designed by General Dynamics Electric Boat (EB) and Huntington Ingalls Industrie ...
s will include the organic ability to employ seabed warfare equipment.
The
Russian submarine Losharik
Project 210, Project 10831 or AS-31 (russian: АС-31), nicknamed ''Losharik'' ( rus, Лошарик, p=lɐˈʂarʲɪk), is a Russian deep-diving nuclear powered submarine. On 1 July 2019, a fire broke out on the vessel while it was taking un ...
is thought to be capable of seabed warfare.
The Chinese
HSU-001 is a small UUV, speculated to be optimized for seabed warfare.
See also
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Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...
*
SOSUS
*
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...
References
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Naval warfare