In the 20th century underwater warfare was dominated by the submarine. They first came to prevalence during the First World War, when German U-boats attacked and sank many allied vessels, such as the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. A similar scenario occurred during the Second World War, when German U-boats launched a prolonged campaign against Allied shipping, especially in the mid-Atlantic. Japanese submarines also played a minimal role on the Pacific front, and American submarines sank a total of 5.3million tons of Axis shipping throughout the war, most of which was scored against the Japanese. In the 21st century unmanned underwater vehicles are coming to play a significant part in underwater warfare.
The first combat submarine was the "Turtle" created by David Bushnell in 1776 and was used during the revolutionary war in an attempt to attach a bomb to a British Flagship.
Seabed warfare is defined as "operations to, from and across the ocean floor." In general the target of seabed warfare is infrastructure in place on the seabed such as power cables, telecom cables, or natural resource extraction systems.
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