Section G.9: Why don the US, UK and France use diesel-electric subs?
(Note – The US retains two diesel-electric subs, one as an experimental craft and one as a training target; the UK has no diesel-electric subs; France retains only one diesel-electric sub, as an experimental platform.) It is generally considered that the US and UK don’t operate diesel-electric submarines because the nuclear propulsion/nuclear submarine (SSN) communities don’t want anything to compete with their SSNs for budget dollars. With the SSN community opposed to SSs, such vessels stand very little chance of being built or remaining in service. However, in addition to the political/budgetary issues, there are some valid reasons for not using diesel boats (SSs). Most importantly, the missions for which the diesel boats are best-suited have vanished from planning since the end of the Cold War. SSs are well suited to defending friendly ports and lurking off enemy ports, waiting for enemy vessels to present themselves as targets. Now there is no enemy to defend friendly ports against
