Deter China? US Navy Sends Nuclear-Armed Submarine to Guam, Patrolling Pacific

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) Massive destructive power may now be quietly and secretly lurking beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean, ensuring responsive 2nd-strike capability in the event the US is subject to nuclear attack.

Indeed a US Navy nuclear-armed Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine recently conducted a “port visit” to a Naval Base in Guam. The intent here is both clear and self-evident, and specifically cited in a Navy description of the deployment … “deterrence.” While the specific location and operational scope of a nuclear-armed submarine is never disclosed for security reasons, the existence of the USS Kentucky (SSBN) in Guam is unmistakably related to a message of strategic deterrence.

“The visit reflects the United States’ resolve and commitment to the Indo-Pacific region with continued extended deterrence to our regional allies and demonstrates the flexibility, survivability, readiness, and capability of U.S. Navy submarine forces,” an essay from US Submarine Forces, Fleet Forces Command says.

The concept of strategic deterrence, which is the very foundation of the Pentagon’s nuclear triad, is based on a fundamental paradox introducing the prospect of catastrophic destruction for the purpose of ensuring peace. It may seem like an unambiguous contradiction, yet that is precisely the intent. Strategic deterrence regarding nuclear submarines, which the Navy description calls the most survivable leg of the nuclear triad, is intended to prevent any nuclear-armed power from considering a first-strike nuclear attack. The USS Kentucky assures that any first=strike nuclear attack will be responded to with a devastating, massively destructive counterattack. The message is clear … any country attacking the US with nuclear weapons will be destroyed quickly. US Navy nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines are armed wtih Trident IID5 nuclear missiles equipped with multiple re-entry vehicles and therefore capable of exacting large amounts of destruction upon an attacking country from thousands of miles away. The range of the Trident IID5 is known to be at or greater than 4,000 miles, therefore nuclear-armed Ohio-class submarines can secretly conduct clandestine deterrence missions from “unknown” locations thousands of miles away.

“Homeported at Naval Base Kitsap, Kitsap, Washington, USS Kentucky is a launch platform for submarine-launched ballistic missiles, providing the United States with its most survivable leg of the nuclear triad,” a Navy description reads.

Clearly the Pentagon and White House are clear that the US does not intend upon or even consider some kind of nuclear first strike, but rather bases its destructive weaponry purely upon responsive defenses. Should a potential adversary be assured of rapid and complete destruction, they certainly might be less inclined to contemplate nuclear attack as a realistic option.

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