ASW requires mass against hundreds of possible contacts

The persistent lesson from World War I to the present is that anti-submarine warfare consumes more assets than planners expect. The Royal Navy's hundreds of World War I destroyers and sloops still could not cover every fleet, patrol, coastal, and convoy demand. A modern force facing forty hostile boats might confront four hundred, five hundred, or even eight hundred plausible contacts, each demanding time to classify. Uncrewed surface, air, and underwater systems offer a way to add investigators and sensor mass, but the governing requirements remain coordination, volume, and rapid follow-up before a real submarine reaches attack position.