USS Nevada: US Navy ballistic missile submarine makes rare appearance in Guam
By: Brad Lendon (CNN)
Joe Biden has resorted to nuclear diplomacy in the best traditions of the Cold War. Someone needs to remind Biden that this is 2022 and not 1962.
Joe Biden has definitely demonstrated that he ain't Trump. Joe Biden is actually more dangerous.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Hong Kong (CNN)One of the most powerful weapons in the US Navy's arsenal made a rare port call in Guam over the weekend, sending a message to allies and foes amid increasing tensions in the Indo-Pacific, analysts said.
The USS Nevada, an Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarine carrying 20 Trident ballistic missiles and dozens of nuclear warheads, pulled into the Navy base in the US Pacific Island territory on Saturday. It's the first visit of a ballistic missile submarine -- sometimes called a "boomer" -- to Guam since 2016 and only the second announced visit since the 1980s.
"The port visit strengthens cooperation between the United States and allies in the region, demonstrating US capability, flexibility, readiness, and continuing commitment to Indo-Pacific regional security and stability," a US Navy statement said.
Movements of the 14 boomers in the US Navy's fleet are usually closely guarded secrets. Nuclear power means the vessels can operate submerged for months at a time, their endurance limited only by the supplies needed to sustain their crews of more than 150 sailors. The Navy says Ohio-class submarines stay an average of 77 of days at sea before spending about a month in port for maintenance and replenishment.
It's rare for one to even be photographed outside their home ports of Bangor, Washington, and Kings Bay, Georgia. The secrecy surrounding the ballistic missile submarines makes them the "most important survivable leg of the nuclear triad," which also includes silo-based ballistic missiles on the US mainland and nuclear-capable bombers like the B-2 and B-52.
But with tensions brewing between the US and China over the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, and as North Korea ramps up missile tests, Washington can make a statement with its ballistic missile submarines that neither Beijing nor Pyongyang can, according to the analysts.
"It sends a message -- intended or not: we can park 100-odd nuclear warheads on your doorstep and you won't even know it or be able to do much about it. And the reverse isn't true and won't be for a good while," said Thomas Shugart, a former US Navy submarine captain and now an analyst at the Center for a New American Security.
North Korea's ballistic submarine program is in its infancy, and China's estimated fleet of six ballistic missile submarines is dwarfed by the US Navy's. And China's ballistic missile subs don't have the capabilities of the US boomers, according to a 2021 analysis by experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
China's Type 094 ballistic missile subs are two times louder than the US subs, and therefore more easily detected, and carry fewer missiles and warheads, CSIS analysts wrote in August.
Besides the political signaling, the presence of the USS Nevada in the region presents another opportunity, said Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy at King's College in London. "The presence of this type of boat -- especially in training and exercises -- adds an important opportunity to learn how to hunt those of other actors in the region," Patalano said. "The DPRK (North Korea) is pursuing the development of such a type of a platform, and China already fields them. Honing in the skills to track them is as important as deploying them as strategic deterrent," he said.
The last time a US Navy boomer visited Guam was in 2016, when the USS Pennsylvania stopped there. Analysts said tensions across the Indo-Pacific have significantly increased since that time, and more such military displays are likely from Washington in the current environment.
"This deployment reminds us that the nuclear order at sea in the (Indo-Pacific) matters, and whilst often outside wider public conversation, we are likely to see more of it in the development of regional strategic balance," Patalano said.
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Joe Kim Jon-Biden is threatening to fire off ballistic missiles to make a political point. Don't we all feel safer now? Ain't returning to normal grand?
But, TRUMP ...............
China’s subs are louder?
Guess they haven’t managed to steal that from us yet
They do have something just as deadly. Their subs are commanded by female officers!
Lol ..... dude!
I think one left the new naval port of Gwadar loaded with missiles, but had to return because she forgot something...
Not that they have not tried hard over the years.
The really steep learning curve is Carrier Aviation.
They are WAY behind in that.
Yep. One glaring example is that they still have not figured out they just cannot get a fully combat loaded fighter/fighter bomber off a ski jump ramp. They have to launch them without full fuel or weapons load that can severely restrict range and that makes them vulnerable.
"It sends a message -- intended or not: we can park 100-odd nuclear warheads on your doorstep and you won't even know it or be able to do much about it. And the reverse isn't true and won't be for a good while,"
Occasionally our enemies need a reminder of what we are capable of. Rest assured Brainless Bumbling Biden didn't come up with this policy on his own.
Don't forget that Cold War nuclear diplomacy was also intended to bully allies. In case no one has noticed, European allies have been reticent to embrace Joe Biden as the global leader of a unified Western agenda. Europe is testing Biden with Ukraine to see how compliant he will be.
They didn't like Trump but they could get behind him cause they knew where he stood....
They don't have a clue with Biden...
Well, Trump was out in front on several diplomatic issues. Trump refused to be held back by European wishy-washy status quo power plays. And I doubt Trump would allow the UN to bash Israel for responding to attacks by Hamas.
Biden has taken the United States back to the normalcy of leading from behind. Biden is more concerned over the eastern Ukrainian border than our own southern border simply because Europe is pulling Biden's strings.
So, Biden is left with reviving Cold War nuclear diplomacy. Parading SSBNs around to show the flag is as much about trying to remind Europe why the United States is important than it is to send a message to adversaries. Biden has taken the United States back to placing the burdens of fighting Europe's wars on the backs of American taxpayers.
They didn't like Trump but they could get behind him cause they knew where he stood....
Donald Trump didn’t even know where Donald Trump stood, he only knew where the worst influences in this country were telling him to stand.
I'd bet General "Woke" Milley sure did not either.
I enjoyed reading the verbal swaggering comments above. Anyone watch the movie "Crimson Tide"? America's targets might be "The Mouse That Roared" in comparison, but it will only take one nuclear armed missile to cause Armageddon. Love the movies.
I think you have seen too many movies Buzz. You keep trying to apply movies, not reality, to real life situations. Reality.
Love me some Hackman (former Marine by the way) and Denzel but Crimson Tide was a just a movie. A very entertaining movie but only a movie just the same.
Sparty, I know it's not likely that we will see a dog pee on the floor of a submaried, but there have been a number of times that I have pointed out on this site that besides the adage that 'Art imitates life', in many cases, 'Life imitates art' because that HAS happened. I've forgotten the examples where I pointed out that it did, but I'll try to remember to contact you the next time I see it happen.
It’s pretty rare when art (movies) imitates life real closely. Life tends to be more boring/doesn’t sell as well. That’s not to say movies don’t approximate real life well sometimes. They do. Case in point, Full Metal Jack is about as close to seeing what Marine Corps boot camp is like without going through it. The rest of the movie lesser so from what I’m told by friends who went through that experience.
Pretty rare when a movie does a good book justice. Both would still be fiction, maybe based very closely on real life and yet recreating a book work of fiction in two hours is problematic to say the least. Liberties are taken out of necessity.
That’s just the reality of it.
If Full Metal Jacket was actually close to reality, I'm really glad I never had to experience Marine Boot Camp. Of course it's impossible for a movie to exactly replicate a novel - it would have to be a series to even get close.. I thought they did a pretty good job with the Colin Firth - Jennifer Ehle BBC 5 part series of Pride and Prejudice, but even that was not a perfect adaptation. There are examples of movies imitating movies (or at least parts of them such as Sleepless in Seattle imitating parts of An Affair to Remember) and I wonder if any people who have arranged to meet on the observation deck of the Empire State Building have actually meant to do so because of the movies.
R. Lee Ermey who played the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket is what really made the Basic Training scenes so realistic, and that is because Ermey was in fact a former USMC Drill Instrctor. A little known fact is that Ermey ad libbed all his dialog with the recruits and the director was so impressed that he allowed the unscripted realistic dialog to remain in the film as it added to the reality of Vietnam Era USMC Basic Training at the time.
It's always interesting to learn bits of inside information like that. Thanks.