Could be a surface ship or two involved in this.

"But I wonder what would have happened if the surface ship had stopped?"

At least he had put one of the surface ships on the bottom.

They cannot control the sea in the same way as surface ships do.

But we'll also need to make sure the surface ships are just as careful.

Surface ships clearly were much easier to find and attack.

"So what the hell are their surface ships up to?"

They have no surface ships and an aircraft is out of the question.

But that would take another fifteen years of going to sea on surface ships.

He knew what the Japanese fleet had in surface ships.