Latest news with #Toti
AllAfrica
3 days ago
- Business
- AllAfrica
Submarine delays sinking US edge in a Taiwan war
A widening gap between US submarine ambitions and industrial capacity is reshaping the undersea balance just as China accelerates its challenge beneath the waves. This month, the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted that the US Navy has deferred procurement of its next-generation attack submarine, the SSN(X), from fiscal year 2035 to 2040 due to overall budget constraints, as stated in the Navy's FY2025 30-year shipbuilding plan. The delay raises concerns about a critical production gap following the completion of the Columbia-class line and threatens continuity in the submarine industrial base. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the average unit cost of the SSN(X) at US$8.7 billion, 23% higher than the Navy's own $7.1 billion projection. Designed to exceed adversaries in speed, stealth, payload capacity and autonomous system integration, the SSN(X) draws on traits from the Seawolf, Virginia and Columbia classes, with CBO estimating a displacement of roughly 10,100 tons. The deferral has reignited debate over propulsion choices, but the US Navy maintains its opposition to low-enriched uranium (LEU), citing endurance losses, developmental uncertainties and a potential 20–30-year, $25 billion timeline for an alternative fuel system. General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) are expected to share construction duties, but the five-year delay casts doubt on workforce retention and supplier viability. Congress faces growing pressure to reconcile fiscal constraints with strategic imperatives as China accelerates its undersea buildup. The deferral underscores a growing mismatch between strategic urgency and industrial capacity, exposing vulnerabilities in undersea readiness just as China ramps up its naval modernization. Production bottlenecks, workforce attrition and tight budgets are converging to undermine the one domain where the US has still retained its clear advantage. Underscoring this strategic importance, William Toti writes in a December 2023 Proceedings article that US attack submarines (SSNs) will serve as the linchpin of undersea dominance in a Taiwan Strait crisis, conducting high-risk anti-surface warfare (ASuW) to blunt China's potential invasion or blockade. He notes that SSNs can operate covertly in shallow, contested waters, striking People's Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) amphibious vessels and aircraft carriers with torpedoes while remaining undetected. Their stealth, he argues, allows early deployment without escalating tensions, though their limited numbers highlight dangerous shortfalls. Toti emphasizes that with US air power likely constrained and surface forces withheld in early stages of a conflict, SSNs may constitute the only decisive maritime counterforce. He calls for expanding the submarine fleet, speeding up weapons production and prioritizing ASuW readiness in anticipation of Indo-Pacific contingencies. However, even the world's best submarines may face formidable odds. Bryan Clark writes in a December 2022 Hudson Institute article that China's layered anti-submarine warfare (ASW) network—including passive seabed sensors, low-frequency active sonar, ASW missiles and mines—could expose and suppress US submarines in contested waters. Clark warns that China's growing fleet of modern conventional submarines, including the air-independent propulsion (AIP)-equipped Yuan-class, may overwhelm US ASW capabilities at chokepoints like the Miyako and Luzon straits. Without integrating unmanned systems such as relocatable sonar arrays and unmanned surface vessels (USVs) with towed sensors, he says, the US Navy risks tactical paralysis. Meanwhile, the US submarine force is overstretched. Jerry Hendrix notes in a 2024 American Affairs article that the Navy's current fleet of 53 fast-attack submarines suffers from chronic maintenance delays, with nearly a third sidelined. He argues that these issues diminish operational readiness, reduce surge capacity during crises and compromise deterrence credibility. He adds that US submarines often must enter contested zones ahead of surface or air forces, making their availability critical. Further, a February 2025 US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights persistent delays in shipbuilding, noting that from 2019 to 2023, the US Navy significantly underdelivered Virginia-class submarines compared to its shipbuilding plans from FY2019 to FY2023. The report identifies workforce shortages, supplier constraints and overly optimistic schedule assumptions as key contributors. The report states that the Columbia-class program also faces risks due to industrial base limitations. GAO criticizes the lack of performance metrics and coordination in Navy investments, warning that without structural reforms and sustained workforce development, the Navy may struggle to meet future shipbuilding goals. By contrast, Sarah Kirchberger writes in a September 2023 China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) report that China's submarine industrial base has expanded rapidly due to massive state investment, civil-military integration and modular shipbuilding practices. She notes that major shipyards such as Bohai and Wuchang have significantly increased construction capacity, positioning them to support the development of strategic platforms like the Type 095 and Type 096. However, Kirchberger cautions that China continues to lag in key technological areas, including nuclear propulsion, acoustic quieting, and advanced materials—factors that directly impact submarine stealth and survivability. She adds that China still relies on foreign—particularly Russian—technologies, and that limited transparency hinders external assessments of its actual capabilities. While China's progress in scaling production is notable, Kirchberger argues that persistent technical shortfalls limit its ability to challenge US undersea dominance in the near term. Reinforcing this view, Ryan Martinson notes in a June 2025 Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) article that Chinese submarines face 'extremely high' detection risks immediately after leaving port due to the US Navy's three-dimensional undersea surveillance network. He describes a system combining seabed sensors, ASW aircraft, satellites, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and sonar-equipped vessels across the First Island Chain. Martinson adds that PLAN experts themselves admit interception risks remain high even in China's 'near seas,' raising doubts about strategic utility and nuclear deterrence. The saturated acoustic environment, he says, renders Chinese submarines effectively 'not-so-silent,' limiting their survivability and wartime deployment. Ultimately, the US's edge beneath the waves is eroding not from enemy fire, but from self-inflicted industrial stagnation and delay. Unless urgently addressed, these setbacks could hand China a dangerous opportunity in the Indo-Pacific and a potential Taiwan war win.
The Citizen
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Umgababa Film Festival draws talent
THE Umgababa Film Festival took place at the Umnini Thusong Centre recently, bringing together a host of entertainment industry celebrities who shared valuable insights with attendees. Also read: Toti filmmaker hopes to develop more talent High school learners from three Umgababa high schools joined community members in welcoming public figures that included Musa Mseleku, Naledi Aphiwe, Amawele aseChesterville, Nhloso Khwela, and DJ Khule. Nkululeko Khwela of the Nkululeko Foundation, which organised the event, said the aim of bringing to Umgababa the people the youth always see on TV was to entertain and inspire. 'We look forward to the day when the next big actor from Umgababa makes it to television, a moment that will make us all proud as a united community. Our guests expressed heartfelt appreciation for the warm welcome they received,' said Khwela. He added that the festival also provided job opportunities for residents of Umgababa. 'That is a step forward in uplifting our community through the creative industry. As we grow, we aim to create even more opportunities for involvement and empowerment,' he said. On behalf of the organising team, he thanked the attendees, parents, schools, teachers, artists, and service providers. For more South Coast Sun news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox. Do you have more information pertaining to this story? Feel free to let us know by commenting on our Facebook page or you can contact our newsroom on 031 903 2341 and speak to a journalist. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
The Citizen
15-06-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
Toti runners commended for beating the Comrades
THE Amanzimtoti Athletic Club (AAC) has congratulated its runners who took part in the Comrades Marathon down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on June 8. Also read: Toti runners ready for the Comrades Out of 32 runners, five were first-time Comrades participants. 'Also, a massive thank you to all the supporters. You've made us proud,' it said. AAC running captain, Warren Gibson, ran and completed his 10th Comrades with a time of 10:10:59. He commended all AAC runners for their good work. 'All but five members finished. The race was hard because you climb out of Pietermaritzburg to Durban. Our first female runner to finish was Lauryn Canderle, and our first male was Ewoud Grobler. Congratulations to everyone,' said Gibson. The men's race was won by Tete Dijana for a third time in four years in 05:25:28, and in the women's race, Gerda Steyn won it for the fourth time in 05:51:19. For more South Coast Sun news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox. Do you have more information pertaining to this story? Feel free to let us know by commenting on our Facebook page or you can contact our newsroom on 031 903 2341 and speak to a journalist. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
The Independent
01-04-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Wolves take another step towards safety as Jorgen Strand Larsen downs West Ham
Jorgen Strand Larsen's first-half strike moved Wolves 12 points clear of the Premier League relegation zone with a 1-0 home victory over West Ham. Vitor Pereira's side were five points adrift of safety when he replaced Gary O'Neil but successive league wins for the third time this season eased the Molineux club closer towards safety. Evan Ferguson missed a glorious opportunity to give West Ham the lead on his first start for the club and the Hammers were punished by Larsen who put Wolves in front with his 10th goal of the campaign. Marshall Munetsi fired against the upright which denied Wolves a second while they were on top and Graham Potter was forced to ring the changes with a triple substitution at the break. Larsen failed to bury a second and Wolves were almost left to rue their missed chances when substitute Niclas Fullkrug headed on to the crossbar before he squandered a one-on-one in the last minute as Wolves were able to hang on for their first home win in two months. The Hammers were almost gifted a chance to take the lead when Toti lost possession to Jarrod Bowen and the England winger broke and squared for Ferguson but he was unable to sort his feet out and direct his effort on target. Wolves went ahead in the 21st minute when Emmanuel Agbadou found Larsen in space and the Norwegian turned and let fire from 20 yards with a strike that bounced off Max Kilman and beyond goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. The hosts were inches away from a second. Larsen turned creator this time and rolled the ball into the path of Munetsi who had the beating of Areola but not the bar. Wolves were well on top and looked to rubber stamp their first-half superiority with a second. Andre was next to have a go from distance but his effort flew harmlessly over the crossbar. The hosts continued to probe for a second, this time Jean-Ricner Bellegarde's curling effort was only good enough to hit the side netting and the game threatened to boil over when Nelson Semedo and James Ward-Prowse came head to head. For all of Wolves' dominance they were still unable to put West Ham away and Larsen sliced wide after Matt Doherty pulled the ball back to him inside the six yard box. Wolves began to invite pressure and the visitors almost found themselves level when Fullkrug looped a header on to the bar and Emerson was unable to turn in the rebound from close range. West Ham should have had their equaliser when Toti gifted the ball to Tomas Soucek, but the substitute slammed into the sidenetting with the goal gaping.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
WWII podcast sets sights on stories that offer lessons for future wars
What happens when a retired Navy captain and a military historian walk into a bar? That's what Capt. William Toti and Seth Paridon, hosts of the 'Unauthorized History of the Pacific War' podcast, wanted to find out in 2022. Two years later, what started as a lark has turned into a powerhouse program — approaching 10 million listeners and accumulating a die-hard fanbase. Paridon, the former staff historian at The National WWII Museum for 15 years, provides the story arc for each episode while Toti, who served more than 26 years in the Navy, 'riff[s] on the strategic concepts and the battle plan,' the retired officer said. 'I'll pull it up to the strategic level and try to put it in context that way.' Toti's 'riffs' have more substance than that, however. His 26-year Navy career included 'tours as commander of Fleet Antisubmarine Warfare Command Norfolk, as commodore of Submarine Squadron 3, and as commanding officer of the nuclear fast attack submarine USS Indianapolis (SSN-697),' according to his biography. 'He served for more than nine years in the Pentagon, including tours as special assistant to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, as Navy representative to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council and as deputy director of the Navy War Plans Cell, Deep Blue.' Toti recently spoke to Military Times about plans for the pair's podcast and his key role in exonerating Charles McVay, captain of the World War II heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, which has the unpleasant distinction of being known as the worst naval disaster in U.S. history. Some answers have been edited for clarity. He and I were both on a Fox TV show together called 'The Lost Ships of World War II.' It was an exploration of footage that was filmed and paid for by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen. Fox took this footage and I was the Navy analytical talking head. He was the historian. We got canceled after eight episodes — which is not surprising for a World War II TV show. We were commiserating after the show got canceled and said, 'You know, it's sad, because [Seth] has done over 4,000 oral histories.' He was the chief historian at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, so we had all of these oral histories from WWII veterans who had stories to tell. I'm not a historian, but I've been interested in WWII, particularly the submarine service, since I was a midshipman. After the movie 'Jaws' [featured] the story of Indianapolis, I ended up commanding the submarine Indianapolis and got to know the survivors of the cruiser. And that's really when I got pulled in deeply into the WWII history world. We were commiserating after the TV show gets canceled and we said, 'Podcasts are kind of hot. Maybe we should try that? We'll do it for a few months, there will be no listeners and we'll quit. But at least we'll have tried.' Our plan was to start at Pearl Harbor and then move chronologically through the war. If we had 1,000 viewers we would have been happy, but within a few months — I have no idea how since we didn't pay for any advertising, we didn't do anything, it's all word of mouth, as far as I can tell — we had 5,000 subscribers. Now we have close 40,000. We're getting several thousand views an episode and we're getting close to crossing the 10 million views threshold. We've already crossed the 1 million audio downloads threshold. There's a contingent of people whose grandpa or great uncle or great grandpa went to the war, they came home, they never talked about it. And now there's this group of people, family members, who wondered what they did. We're trying to put together truthful, character-based stories that haven't been told, to bust myths as we come across them and expose truths that people would find hard to believe. What we don't do is an academic script reading over video. Our concept was two guys talking about World War II. That's the way we tried to frame it, and it seems to have worked. Seth [Paridon] does the background research, because he's got it all at his fingertips. He has a million pages of archive material and over 4,000 oral history video interviews that have been transcribed. He's got footage and he's got photographs, so he kind of frames what he thinks the talking points are going to be for an episode and we decide together what subjects we're going to review. He'll do several hours to maybe a couple of days of research per episode, and I'll spend a few hours editing it and then we just kind of talk through it thematically. We know where we want to hit each plot point. We also know how many pages it takes for a two-hour segment. So, sometimes we go fast, sometimes we go a little long, but generally we try to target it to two hours. We actually wanted to cut it back, thinking two hours was too long. We were actually getting hate mail saying why did you cut it down? [Laughs] So, we went back to two. We assume people have no knowledge when we go into each episode. And by the way, I'm not sure they're digestible, on average. Would you listen to me for two hours? I don't think I wouldn't listen to me for two hours! [Laughs] We try to tell a story in an understandable way by focusing on the people. Every one of those guys and gals came back suffering from PTSD. We didn't know what that was called back then. And so what did they do? They self-medicated with alcohol. There were way more suicides than we want to admit. Among the Indianapolis crew alone, there were 12 suicides, including the captain who was court-martialed. They didn't think about it. They just kind of buried it because they believed that was the best way to deal with it. Many of these stories maybe got written down, recorded in history books and forgotten. That's the great thing about Seth — he hasn't forgotten. He has it at his fingertips. If you talk to high school kids about World War II, they'll know Pearl Harbor or dropping the atomic bomb, but they don't know anything else about the Pacific. We hope our episodes reach some of them and help bridge that gap. I love [Adm. Chester] Nimitz. I love [Adm. Raymond] Spruance. I have a love-hate relationship with [Adm. William] Halsey. I think Halsey said horribly racist things that were counterproductive, but early in the war, in the Guadalcanal campaign, he was vital. There are those kind of personalities that are not monolithic. It's not: 'This is a good guy. This is a bad guy.' Halsey was good at the beginning, and then the war passed him by. It got too complicated for him and he didn't know how to fight in any longer. After 1943 Halsey was probably doing more harm than good. He was only a morale builder, not a strategist. Obviously, I like the submarine episodes. I love the 'Mush' Morton, Wahoo episode we did. I love the [Richard] Dick O'Kane episode. O'Kane is the reason I became a submariner. He came to the academy, talked up submarines when I was a junior and convinced me. We did over 10 episodes on Guadalcanal I think are very good. No one has touched us as far as our accuracy and depth. There's a myth that that the Navy abandoned Guadalcanal but the Navy lost almost four times as many people as the Marines did in the Guadalcanal campaign. I talk to Navy officers and ask, 'Who lost more people?' Zero have gotten it right so far. They've all swallowed the Marine myth. Why doesn't the Navy tell that story? Well, we're telling it. We've done four episodes now on the atomic bomb, including the best episode I've ever seen on the morality of dropping the bomb. We did two of those — one with Richard Frank, a leading world leading historian, and one with John Parshall. If anybody watches those two episodes and afterward does not agree with the decision to drop the bomb, there's something wrong with their head. I saw an injustice and I committed myself to correcting it. I invited all survivors of the cruiser to come to the decommissioning of the [submarine] Indianapolis. They never got to decommission their ship, so I wanted them to come to mine. They came and they stood in formation with my crew. It was incredible. Afterwards, two guys — Paul Murphy and Glenn Morgan — grab me, not quite pushing me against the wall, but metaphorically so, and said, 'Bill, you're the last captain of the submarine Indianapolis. McVay was the last captain of the cruiser. He needs you.' When I started reviewing, I was aware, but hadn't studied in depth the sinking. I hadn't read [Mochitsura] Hashimoto's book. I talked to [Capt.] Ed Beach, who was still alive at the time and was trying to get [Husband] Kimmel and [Walter] Short exonerated. He said, 'Well, you know what you're gonna have to do, right? Failure to zigzag? You're gonna have to demonstrate that failure to zigzag didn't hazard the ship.' As we were decommissioning we had this actual torpedo fire control computer — it was about the size of my desk. You could program the torpedo and then it would run intercept courses and things like that. So, what I did was run how to do this manually, as many runs of the Indianapolis' course, with as many zigs as possible against Hashimoto's firing solution. I just did run after run. I stopped counting after 90 of these, and in every case, at least one of Hashimoto's torpedoes hit. I had this data and I got assigned to the Office of the Vice Chief of Naval Operations when the exoneration language was being voted on by Congress. The Navy's position continued to be that the court-martial was just. These Navy JAG officers kept arguing that if that single torpedo didn't sink the ship, Hashimoto would have gone home. I said, 'You don't understand the way this works. That first torpedo blew the bow off the ship. They were going to get sunk regardless.' That's what the data proves. They couldn't do that in 1945 but we can do it now. I was proud of my role in all of that, even though I was kind of working against my Navy. I think it was the right thing to do, and I'm happy with the way it turned out. We kept saying we were going to end in September 1945 when the treaties were signed on the Missouri. We kept saying that. And probably six months ago we started getting emails and YouTube comments — probably 150 to 200 a day — telling us that we couldn't stop, so we gave in. [Laughs] We know there are a lot more stories in our queue. So, we're going to go back to 1941 again and do the stories we skipped as we went through. There's a whole lot more submarine stories to tell and those are near and dear to my heart, obviously. But there's a lot of stuff to tell. There's a guy who lives not too far from me who's a 103-year-old veteran who served at Peleliu. He was a Seabee, and you know, generally the Seabees in World War II would go in on the fifth wave. I assumed he went in on the fifth wave and I did an episode with him and asked probably the stupidest question I've ever asked in my life: 'By the time you got there, did you see any Japanese?' Turns out he went in on the first wave with the Marines and he said, 'Did I see any Japanese? I saw a ton of Japanese. Most of them were dead.' He was looking at me like, 'How stupid are you?' I'm not sure this is exactly upbeat but as we approach the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, I'm hoping there's going to be an uptick in interest. I know there are going to be celebrations and things like that, but I hope there's also improved understanding of the most horrific war the world has ever known. Forget about learning about it — I fear we're not interested in learning anything from it as we face other potential conflicts in the Pacific and elsewhere. You know how sad that would be? I'm not looking for contrived meaning or linkages, but I do try to connect learnings from the Pacific War to things we need to understand today as we face new Pacific adversaries — and there are many. Is anybody listening? That's the question.
