My dad, a shopkeeper ("SK") on a Navy supply ship in WWII, subsequently created a collection of histories of WWII at sea, and the impact of the German submarine blockade until the breaking of the Ultra code was a lesson I learned as a kid. Many years later I was focused on finding submarines myself.
One fact I learned was that modern heavyweight torpedos are either homing or wire guided (which is to say, even launched by Iranian submarine crews they're likely to hit ... something) and modern anti-ship ones burst beneath the target ship leaving it momentarily unsupported over a gas bubble, then flexing up and down causing enormous structural damage.
Discount the overheated audio but watch an example of the effectiveness of these weapons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV8MF-440xg
The only nation with competent submarines in the Black Sea is Russia.
Fact is, Putin's 7 diesel electric submarines can sink any ship in the Black Sea at will. Assassinating sub skippers is not likely to be really effective ASW for Ukraine (even if thought provoking for some regimes thinking the populace needs "F-15s and nukes" to counter an army of occupation (1)).
With attacks on Russian homeland targets, and attempts at assassination of Putin and key personnel in Russia by 'Ukraine', inevitably we will be seeing how reliant Ukraine is on sea going merchant traffic for it's survival. Even though a year ago foreign policy 'experts' were trying to paint the situation as equally bad for both Ukraine and Russia (2), Russia is just, well, much, much bigger, with access to the Atlantic and Pacific as well as the Black Sea.
Putin will continue to employ sea mines and submarines.
Which reminds - Mine Warfare and Anti-Submarine Warfare. Two vital warfare areas the US Navy has let go to seed, especially with the disastrous failure of the "Littoral Combat Ship" program - supposedly to be the mainstay of surface counter-mine and anti-submarine warfare (3).
Too bad Obama, Brennan, Biden, and Soros had to start this war but, at least events in the Black Sea may be instructive to our, oh soo diverse, Navy.
1. https://nexttobagend.blogspot.com/2023/07/an-object-lesson-certain-to-be-missed.html
2. https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/07/ukraine-shipping-supply-war/
2. https://nexttobagend.blogspot.com/2022/01/a-remineder.html
UPDATE: 8/2/23 - Seems our diverse, environmentally friendly Navy can't even sail this ridiculous, cruiser sized, underarmed mutant, from the pier back to the ship yard.
https://news.yahoo.com/zumwalt-makes-face-back-san-212500580.html
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