During the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium last month, senior U.S. officers issued dire warnings about the state of their force. It is buckling under costs for the new Columbia-class missile submarine and hobbled by construction and maintenance delays that shrink the number of boats able to deploy. But a more significant challenge looms for the U.S. submarine fleet. After decades of owning the undersea, it faces Chinese and Russian capabilities that could neutralize America’s submarine advantage and threaten the United States and its allies at sea and ashore.

Russia, with its Poseidon nuclear-armed underwater drone and small fleet of quiet submarines, may be a more acute menace to the U.S. homeland, but China’s growing submarine force and undersea sensors and weapons could change the global balance of power. By preventing U.S. submarines from operating effectively within the East China Sea and South China Sea and imperiling carriers and air bases across the Western Pacific, China’s undersea forces could make allies such as Taiwan and Japan reconsider their reliance on U.S. protection.
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