Surface presence, submarine concealment, and crisis management

Concealment makes a submarine a powerful wartime weapon because an opponent cannot be sure where it is. Showing one for conventional signaling gives up that advantage and can push a crisis several steps up the escalation ladder. In this account, such a move might force an opponent to back down or precipitate war. Surface ships can maintain an overt presence that is intimidating enough to matter while remaining approachable for diplomacy. That combination explains their proposed role in routine presence and conventional conflict management.