US Submarines Are Popping Up More Often and It’s Not Clear Why

(Bloomberg) — A US nuclear-armed submarine will make a publicly announced visit to South Korea within months, prompting debate about the wisdom of a heightened public role for what’s long been known as the Navy’s “silent service.”

Pentagon officials confirmed that one of the Navy’s 14 Ohio-class vessels will visit, as President Joe Biden signaled in announcing a “Nuclear Consultative Group” during last month’s White House visit by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The submarines, nicknamed Boomers, gained the silent service description because they are designed to glide undetected, and their port calls have seldom been disclosed — much less trumpeted — by their usually taciturn commanders. Each of the subs carries up to 20 D-5 Trident ballistic missiles.

The US has occasionally showcased its submarines in the past, but the pace picked up in the last year with publicized port visits by nuclear-armed Ohio-class submarines as well as Los Angeles-class subs carrying conventional Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The Biden administration’s Nuclear Posture Review endorsed such demonstrations last year.

“We will work with Allies and partners to identify opportunities to increase the visibility of U.S. strategic assets to the region as a demonstration of U.S. resolve and commitment, including ballistic missile submarine port visits and strategic bomber missions,” it said.

On April 18, days before the US-South Korea proclamation, the US Navy announced that the Ohio-class USS Maine made an on-surface logistics stop at the naval base in Guam.

Ronald O’Rourke, chief naval forces analyst for the Congressional Research Service, cited “unusual Navy actions late last year to publicize the presence” of nuclear-armed vessels “in the Arabian Sea, at Diego Garcia, at Gibraltar and in the Atlantic.”

He said it’s not clear whether the upcoming South Korea visit is part of such a new “public signaling strategy” or a one-time decision “reflecting circumstances specific to the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.”

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