U.S Navy Submarine That Transited The Suez Canal Found To Be A Special Operations Mothership

The Military Headquarters of the United States made a shocking announcement on 5th Nov regarding the arrival of an Ohio-class Submarine in an area of responsibility.

They also shared a picture of the sub in the Suez Canal, where a warship of the U.S comes under Central Command and is no longer under the European Command.

The news was a bit surprising since the U.S. generally does not reveal the movements of its submarines, that too of an SSGN, a nuclear-powered guided-missile sub, in this case.

The 4 SSGNs in the US Navy were built by simply taking an Ohio-class SSBN, a nuclear-powered sub with intercontinental ballistic missiles and replacing the Trident Ballistic Missiles with multi-shot canisters having Tomahawk cruise missiles.

This provides the sub with an arsenal of more than 100 weapons that can hit land or sea targets more than 1,000 miles away.

Additionally, the extra space left after removing trident missiles is used to create lock-out chambers that allow divers to exit the sub while it’s submerged.

This submarine can also be fitted with a dry deck shelter, which is a docking bay to carry a small submarine.

This translates to the fact that the mother submarine can remain undetected underwater and deploy frogmen to make a landing without being detected by radar or even by the naked eye unless they come to the shore.

The SSGN that just crossed the Suez Canal had a dry deck shelter fitted in it. Usually, SSGNs also have space enabling them to accommodate 60 and more special force operators for longer periods and 100 plus for shorter durations.

These operators are also divers who operate from the submarine and are part of the elite SEAL teams of the U.S. Navy.

The Ohio-class SSGNs are known for their stealth features and the ability to remain silent and undetected.

Presently, even the world’s strongest and most technologically advanced navies would find it nearly impossible to find this sub now that it has left the Suez Canal and has gone underwater.

Only a handful of people are aware of its mission; however, sending it through the Suez Canal points to an urgency.

Since the sub’s exit from the canal would be known to hostile forces like the Houthis of Iran, it makes sense that the U.S announced it to the world for morale boosting and deterrence.

References: Telegraph, Newstral, Ground News

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Source: Maritime Shipping News