The 4 Different Types of Modern Submarines Today

Key Points

• Attack submarines, guided missile submarines, ballistic missile submarines, and miniature submarines are the four basic versions of submarines available today.
• Guided missile submarines, like those operated by the United States and Russia, are very useful for both naval and land operations. 
• Miniature submarines, such as Iran’s Ghadir class, are inexpensive, short-range vessels that can seriously disrupt strategic locations like the Strait of Hormuz. 
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Transcript:

[00:00:00] Michael Muir: But today, we have four basic types of submarines, so attack submarine, these are either nuclear powered or diesel electric. there’s guided missile submarines. only the United States and Russia actually have those. I think China might. be developing them too. Both attack and guided missile submarines can use cruise missiles so they can surface.

[00:00:20] Michael Muir: They can fire atomic, well in the case of the United States, can fire a tomahawk cruise missile which has a range roughly a thousand miles. so it’s a really useful, weapon for engaging land targets at a very safe distance. they can submerge, excuse me, they can surface undetected, fire off their rounds.

[00:00:38] Michael Muir: And then dive back to safety, like a lot of rocket artillery uses shoot and scoop tactics where they’ll fire a barrage and move nuclear, nuclear powered submarines, or even just these electric submarines can do the same thing, but even better, cause they can get underwater and no one knows, where they are.

[00:00:55] Michael Muir: So you have your attacking guided missile submarines that can both do that ballistics, ballistic missile submarines, which we’ve gone over, which primarily provide the deterrence. and then at the extreme other end of the scale, we have the miniature or midget submarines, that these are, that’s a broad classification of a submarine that’s less than 150 tons.

[00:01:15] Michael Muir: So that is a primarily anti ship weapon. Iran and North Korea, both have an unknown number. I think Iran has Ghadir class, miniature submarines that are based on older North Korean models, very limited operational range, but when you look at where Iran is, vis a vis the Strait of Hormuz, one of the major choke points for global trade, a handful of Ghadir class miniature submarines could wreak absolute havoc for Very low cost.

[00:01:43] Michael Muir: They also have conventional submarines, too. So there’s Iran, they’re building up their submarine force. A lot of other nations are involved, Australia as part of a trilateral security agreement with the United States and UK, one of the aspects of this, and this is for mutual security interest in the Pacific theater.