Newer quieting technologies, coupled with the rapid acquisition of undersea drones and improved torpedoes, make attacks from the sea more likely to be successful.
reporter: a 360 foot long, 8,000 ton underwater menace that could face off with kim jong-un. behind all the scaffolding, america s newest fast attack submarine, the uss south dakota. it is a virginia class sub like this and it will be ready to enter the fleet by late next year with stealth capability. it is one of the newest and quietest ships we have in the world today with regard to submarines. reporter: if it deploys in the pacific, analysts say the south dakota will likely sail near the korean peninsula to counter an ambitious submarine program being developed by kim jong-un. the north koreans have been trying to develop their own submarine capability, everything from sub surface warfare to ballistic missile launcher. they can potentially launch intercontinental or some level of ballistic missile from a submarine that could be nuclear tipped. reporter: he already test launched missiles.
cnn has learned the south dakota like others in the virginia class will be able to launch tomahawk missiles, gather intelligence and deploy navy s.e.a.l.s. we want to verify that or if we want to verify the north koreans have telling us something, we want to necessarily have someone who can put eyes on the ground, eyes on target, to verify that. it is a highly dangerous mission. reporter: in what would be a cold war style cat and mouse game with north korean submarines, experts say, the stealth capability of stubs like the south dakota could make the difference between life and death. even the humans that live on board them are trained to be quiet, so that they put the least amount of noise into the water. we often joke with regard to these electric boats when people ask us, how loud are they, we
missiles. for kim jong-un, it s a dangerous new weapon to worry about. may god bless her and saul ta sail in her. a 360 foot long 8,000 ton menace that could face off with kim jong-un. behind that scaffolding, america s newest fast attack submarine, the uss south dakota. it s a virginia class sub like this and will be ready to enter the fleet by late next year with stealth capability. it s one of newest and quietest ships we have in the world today with regard to submarines. if it deploys in the pacific, the south dakota will likely at some point sail near the korean peninsula to counter an ambitious submarine program deployed by kim jong-un. they ve been trying to develop their own submarine capability. they tested it. they re going to get to the point where they can potentially