The US may be sending another message to China by reportedly sending two nuclear-powered submarines to the western Pacific.
According to Newsweek, official Navy photos show the USS Columbia and the USS Vermont visited Guam in January while being deployed with the Seventh Fleet. Neither the Navy nor Beijing are commenting.
Guam is a crucial outpost for US power projection in the Indo-Pacific – it’s America’s westernmost Pacific island territory and is closer to Beijing than to Hawaii. That puts it within striking distance of a number of Chinese military bases including some in the South China Sea.
The US is in the midst of a military buildup on Guam, which includes $10 billion in construction projects through 2028. In 2023, the Marines opened a base there that will eventually house 4,000 troops.
In November, the Navy said that for the first time, a Virginia-class fast-attack submarine would be homeported in Guam, which has one of the Navy’s largest fuel and ammunition storage facilities in the region. The sub, the USS Minnesota, arrived there Nov. 26.
One of the subs that visited Guam in January, the Vermont, is a Virginia-class vessel. The Columbia is an older, Los Angeles-class boat. The Virginia-class subs are designed to replace the Los Angeles-class vessels as the older ones are taken out of service.
A China military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Brian Hart, told Newsweek that the US fast-attack subs are a major threat to the Chinese navy, the world’s largest. He said there is a “considerable capability gap” that favors the US – despite China’s recent submarine building spree.