The U.K. Royal Navy's main submarine base in Scotland appears to currently be hosting something of a small multinational submarine meet. Yesterday, U.S. Navy's Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Indiana was spotted heading in the direction of Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde. That came a day after one of the French Navy's Rubis class submarines, another nuclear-powered attack type, the specific identity of which is unknown, was seen arriving in the area.
None of the navies involved appear to have said anything specifically about the convergence of these submarines at Clyde. The base is home to the bulk of the Royal Navy's submarine force, including its Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines and Astute class attack submarines, both of which are also nuclear powered.
The USS Indiana's stop there is to "strengthen cooperation between the United States and United Kingdom" and "demonstrate US capability, flexibility, and continuing commitment to NATO allies," the Navy said, according to a report yesterday from U.K. Defence Journal. Indiana had left its homeport at Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut for what the Navy described simply as "routine operations" in January.
The back-to-back arrival of American and French submarines at Cylde could very well be just a coincidence. At the same time, the activities of submarine forces worldwide are typically relatively secretive affairs, so unusual public movements, such as American, French, and almost certainly British nuclear submarines all now being present at Clyde, often draw attention and are assumed to be some form of signaling. In Europe in recent years, American submarines have often made appearances at notable locations, including the Royal Navy's submarine hub in Scotland and its base in Gibraltar, as well as off the coast of Norway, when tensions have spiked with Russia.
This gathering has certainly come at a time of extremely high tensions in the region as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began at the end of February. In the lead up to the conflict, submarines had been part of U.S. and NATO signaling aimed at Moscow, including the Navy's deliberate publicizing of the presence of USS Georgia, one of its four Ohio class guide missile submarines, an extremely capable multi-purpose platform that you can read about more here, in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea near Cyprus.
There are indications that more discreet underwater posturing between NATO, to include the United States and the United Kingdom, and Russia has been happening since the fighting broke out. A number of Russian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines reportedly headed out into the North Atlantic after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he had put his country's strategic forces on special alerton February 27, according to a story from The Times newspaper in Britain that was published in March.
No comments:
Post a Comment