People often talk about the lethality of America’s Air Force or its 11 super carriers and 10 medium class carriers, in reality the most impressive and destructive weapon system in America’s inventory resides below the waterline, I am talking about the nuclear powered submarines that are considered the best in the world bar none, “The men in the black suits.”
They have a variety of abilities that maintain this advantage and they reside in the Sea Wolf, Virginia, Los Angeles, and Ohio class subs: remaining quite as barn owl, extensive sonar tech, nuclear powerplant tech, secured communication, intelligence gathering, the ability to destroy a country or the world, striking a country’s heart with cruise missiles, inserting spec ops with detachable mini subs, and numbers (around 75). The cost for each sub varies but hovers around one billion each USD.
The Americans talk less about their subsurface warfare capabilities/activities than they do about their 3rd and 2nd tier special operations forces and that lets you know where the real power lies.