Like ghosts from another era, the United States' vast fleet of attack submarines still silently stalks the country's Pacific and Atlantic coasts for an enemy that is no longer there.
While some military analysts write off the expensive, 55-boat nuclear fleet as the ultimate symbol of post-Cold War redundancy, senior Pentagon officials have hatched a confidential proposal to spend about US$14 billion (HK$107.8 billion) to increase its numbers dramatically.
The latest study by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed this week, cuts to the heart of a fierce debate about the military's modern role and pork-barrel defence spending by Congress.
At the same time it gives a rare glimpse into the modern role of the subs: gathering intelligence from undersea fibre-optic cables and despatching special agents on covert missions.
'Something very peculiar is going on,' says Ivan Eland, director of defence policy studies at the Cato Institute, a private Washington think-tank.
'If you can't cut your submarine force in the modern environment you are in bad shape in trying to cut or realign your military. It must always be remembered that this vast fleet was assembled to fight a Soviet naval threat that no longer really exists.' In 1985, some 96 attack subs covered the globe to counter the Soviets, along with a smaller number of larger ballistic submarines and the mighty air-craft carrier battle groups - America's ace-in-the-hole.
