US Navy is placing an order for more sub-hunting gear to counter Russian Subs

Christopher Woody– Business Insider

• The US Navy has asked Congress to apportion more money to buy sonobuoys, which are needed to track submarines.
• The request comes amid increasing submarine activity in the waters around Europe.
• Russian and NATO navies have both shrunk since the Cold War, and both sides are working to add ships and boost their capabilities.

Intensifying submarine activity in the waters around Europe has led the US Navy to request millions of additional dollars to buy submarine-detecting sonobuoys, according to an Omnibus funding measure the Pentagon requested from Congress earlier this month.

The Navy has asked Congress to allot $20 million to buy more air-dropped sonobuoys that can detect submarines and transmit data back to surface ships and aircraft.

Supplies of such buoys have fallen critically short after an “unexpected high anti-submarine warfare operational tempo in 2017 [which] resulted in unexpected high expenditure rate of all type/model/series,” the Omnibus says, according to Breaking Defense .

Russian nuclear submarine Dmitry Donskoy sails under the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark on its way to St. Petersburg, July 21, 2017. Scanpix Denmark/Sarah Christine Noergaard via Reuters

US and NATO officials have repeatedly warned about increased Russian submarine activity in the seas around Europe over the past several years.

US warships have tracked Russian subs in the eastern Mediterranean, where British subs have also reportedly tangled with their Russian counterparts. Russian submarines have transited the area to reach the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet base and to support the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria, where a years-long civil war has been a ” test bed ” for new Russian submarine capabilities.

Interest in submarine and anti-submarine warfare is growing around the world — one 2015 study predicted global demand for sonobuoys would grow by 40% through 2020, with most of the interest in passive sonobuoys that can listen for submarines without being detected.