LOOKING BACK AT THE COLD WAR AND P-3C ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE (ASW) 40 YEARS AGO

Abstract

While many have already forgotten the tense times of the Cold War, it is increasingly important to relook at those events to provide context and references as we engage in increasingly tense relationships with Russia and China. During the 44 years of the Cold War, trillions of dollars were spent as millions of Americans, Allies and our Soviet and Warsaw Pact counterparts – served and stood watches on bases, remote outposts, ships, submarines, aircraft, and missile siloes to maintain an uneasy balance of powers during dangerous times. The Cold War affected several generations and hundreds of thousands were killed or injured while serving to maintain stability and the peace. This paper briefly reviews macro events of the Cold War, nuclear deterrence, and US and Soviet naval expansion. It also provides a micro look at Navy P-3C Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) patrol operations in the late 1970s, and technologies including early digital computers, trackballs, inertials, data link, touch screens, sonobuoys, and magnetic anomaly detection. Reviewing the Cold War and a focus on extensive and expensive Allied ASW operations can serve to remind us of the complexity of these operations, the danger of the times, lessons-learned, and the sacrifices by both sides while maintaining constant vigils around the world during tense times.

Keywords

• cold war
• nuclear deterrence
• submarine-launched ballistic missile (slbm)
• anti-submarine warfare (asw)