Guided missile sub has arrived in Middle East, US says in rare announcement

The US military said in a rare announcement that a guided missile submarine had arrived in the Middle East, sending a clear message of deterrence to regional adversaries as the Biden administration tries to avoid a broader conflict amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, CNN reports.

The US Central Command announced on social media on Sunday that an Ohio-class submarine had entered its domain. The photo accompanying the announcement appeared to show the submarine in the Suez Canal northeast of Cairo.

The sub was not identified in the social media post, but the US Navy has four Ohio-class guided missile submarines, or SSGNs, which are former ballistic missile submarines converted to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles rather than nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

Each SSGN can carry 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which is 50% more than what US guided-missile destroyers can carry and nearly four times what the US Navy's newest attack subs can carry.

Each Tomahawk can carry a high-explosive warhead weighing up to 1,000 pounds.

"SSGNs can deliver a lot of firepower very rapidly," Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Centre, told CNN in 2021.

"One-hundred and fifty-four Tomahawks accurately deliver a lot of punch. No opponent of the US can ignore the threat."

The magnitude of that firepower was demonstrated in March 2011, when the guided missile submarine USS Florida launched nearly 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles against targets in Libya during Operation Odyssey Dawn. The SSGNs were used in combat for the first time during the attack.

The military makes few announcements about the movements and operations of its fleet of ballistic and guided missile submarines. The nuclear-powered ships, on the other hand, operate in near-complete secrecy.

The announcement sends a clear message of deterrence to Iran and its regional proxies. The submarine joins other US Navy assets already in the area, including two carrier strike groups and an amphibious ready group.

The USS Florida, one of the two East Coast-based SSGNs, was operating in the Middle East in April, according to the Navy.

The Navy announced in June that one of its two West Coast-based SSGNs, USS Michigan, would visit South Korea as a show of US commitment to its Indo-Pacific allies.

The announcement of a guided missile submarine in the region comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with US partners in the Middle East. Blinken has visited Turkey, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, and Cyprus in a whirlwind trip.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, on Sunday. In addition to emphasising the importance of protecting civilians and providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, Austin stated that the US was committed to deterring "any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this conflict," a clear reference to Iran and the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

There have been numerous low-level attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed groups, but the US has made it clear that larger attacks will result in a major response.

According to Austin, the additional forces in the region are intended to "bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for US forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel."

"We will do everything and take all necessary measures to protect US forces and our interests overseas," Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said October 23. "Again, no one wants to see a widening conflict, and that is our primary goal, but we will also never hesitate to protect our forces."