America’s Top Aircraft Carrier Faces Russian Submarine Threat: P-8 Sub-Hunters Deployed to Respond

The U.S. Air Force, British Royal Air Force and Royal Norwegian Air Force scrambled multiple P-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft in the High North on August 27 in response to the presence of a Russian submarine, which posed a potential threat to the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford in the region. Norwegian P-8s operating from Evenes Air Base had by the following day carried out three sorties, while British P-8s flying from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland had completed eight missions, with an unknown number of flights made by U.S. Navy P-8s. Western sources described this as as “unusually large and sustained surge of activity.” The class of Russian submarine thought to have been operating in the area remains unconfirmed, although the levels of concern in appeared to have sparked indicate that it may have been one of the Navy’s new Yasen Class nuclear powered ships, which are among the very quietest in the world.

The USS Gerald Ford is by far the most capable class of aircraft carrier operated in the Western world, and has been deployed in Europe at a time of high tension with Russia due to ongoing hostilities in Ukraine. Multiple NATO members including the United States, United Kingdom, France and Poland, among others, have made major deployments of ground forces and contractors to support the Ukrainian war effort, which have taken casualties during multiple engagements with Russian forces. Mounting advances by Russian forces on the ground have further strained tensions. As part of Western intervention in the conflict, P-8s have frequently been deployed in the Black Sea region to survey Russian forces, as one of a multitude of NATO assets relied on to provide valuable intelligence to support the Ukrainain war effort. The P-8 is NATO’s primary asset for monitoring and countering underwater threats in the Atlantic and Arctic, and uses advanced radars and sonar buoys to detect and track modern submarines. The aircraft are also lightly armed with Mark 54 torpedoes, allowing them to engage enemy vessels detected.

The challenge to NATO forces from the Russian attack submarine fleet has grown significantly both as the fleet of cutting edge Yasen Class ships has grown, and the new Zircon anti-ship cruise missile has been brought into service in growing numbers.The first launch of the Zircon from a Yasen Class ship was carried out in October 2021, with the missile’s 1000 kilometre ranges and Mach 9 speed making it extremely challenging to intercept. Russian President Vladimir Putin was confirmed on July 24 to have given instructions to extend the serial production of enhanced Yasen-M Class submarines, stressing their importance as the backbone of the Russian Navy’s general-purpose forces. The difficulty of detecting Yassen Class ships, and the range of the Zircon missile, are between them expected to place significant pressure on NATO members’ P-8 fleets.