Attack submarine

HMCS Windsor, an attack submarine of the Royal Canadian Navy

An attack submarine or hunter-killer submarine is a submarine specifically designed for the purpose of attacking and sinking other submarines, surface combatants and merchant vessels. In the Soviet and Russian navies they were and are called "multi-purpose submarines".[1] They are also used to protect friendly surface combatants and missile submarines.[2] Some attack subs are also armed with cruise missiles, increasing the scope of their potential missions to include land targets.

Attack submarines may be either nuclear-powered or diesel–electric ("conventionally") powered. In the United States Navy naming system, and in the equivalent NATO system (STANAG 1166), nuclear-powered attack submarines are known as SSNs and their anti-submarine (ASW) diesel–electric predecessors are SSKs. In the US Navy, SSNs are unofficially called "fast attacks".[3]

  1. ^ Gorshkov (1979), p. 55.
  2. ^ "Attack Submarine Info". US Navy. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  3. ^ "Appendix:Glossary of U.S. Navy slang", Wiktionary, the free dictionary, 2024-10-24, retrieved 2024-10-26