The US Navy has deployed a guided missile submarine capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles to the Middle East, a US Navy spokesperson said Saturday, in what appears to be a show of force toward Iran in the wake of recent tensions.
The Navy rarely acknowledges the location or deployment of submarines. boss. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, declined to comment on the submarine’s mission or what led to its deployment.
He said the nuclear-powered submarine, based out of Kings Bay, Georgia, passed through the Suez Canal on Friday.
“It is capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is deployed to the United States Fifth Fleet to help ensure regional maritime security and stability,” Hawkins said.
The Fifth Fleet patrols the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil passes. Its area includes the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen and the Red Sea extending all the way to the Suez Canal, the Egyptian waterway connecting the Middle East to the Mediterranean Sea.
Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from ships or submarines can hit targets 2,500 kilometers away. They were reputed to have been working during the opening hours of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and
Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated since then-President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 deal with world powers that provided sanctions relief in return for Iran curbing its nuclear activities and putting it under close monitoring.
The Biden administration’s efforts to restore the agreement hit a dead end last year.
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