Submarines surface in more overt deterrence role
The US Navy has shown in some of its recent deployments, not least to the Middle East, how submarines are playing an increasingly visible role in deterrence and diplomacy, as Nick Childs explains.
This blog post was first published on the Military Balance+ on 18 May 2023
In early April, the United States Navy publicised the transit from the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal of one of its Ohio-class nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines (SSGNs), the USS Florida. The submarine was heading for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet area of operations in and around the Gulf, the Red Sea, and the northwest Indian Ocean. The deployment, and its announcement, is the latest example of the more overt role US submarines are now playing in deterrence messaging. In the past, such moves might have been dubbed ‘gunboat diplomacy’.
Deployment trends
Traditionally, submarines have relied on their invisibility and stealth for their effectiveness. In a strictly operational sense, that remains the case. But the more overt utilisation of deployments in times of tension represents something new.
The Ohio-class SSGNs, of which the US Navy has four, are modified from their original role as nuclear-powered ballistic missile-armed submarines (SSBNs). They can carry up to 154 Raytheon Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles (TLAMs).
In 2020, another Ohio-class SSGN, the USS Georgia, rather visibly deployed on the surface through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf. When the USS West Virginia, one of the Ohios still serving as an SSBN, surfaced in the Arabian Sea in October 2022, the US Department of Defense drew attention to this in public statements. This was a particularly striking development given that nuclear-deterrence issues had once again entered the spotlight due to the Ukraine war. Any message will likely have been heard in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran.
https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/military-balance/2023/05/submarines-surface-in-more-overt-deterrence-role/
