The US Navy is putting its submarines on rare public display in a message to Russia

The US Navy is putting its submarines on rare public display in a message to Russia's growing undersea force

Christopher Woody

• The US Navy has announced several visits by its subs to North Atlantic ports in recent years.

• Subs are among the US's most secretive weapons, and announcements about their movements are rare.

• Their growing visibility comes as Russia's own increasingly advanced subs are getting more active.

The US Navy rarely reveals where its submarines are, but it is making those subs more visible in the North Atlantic, demonstrating their presence as US officials warn that Russian submarines are more active and carrying new weapons closer to US shores.

Since late 2020, the Navy has announced multiple visits by its submarines to Tromsø in northern Norway, the Danish-controlled Faroe Islands, and Iceland — locations that reduce the time those subs have to spend away from their operating areas, according to Vice Adm. William Houston, the commander of US submarine forces.

For subs in the North Atlantic, access to those ports means "we can exchange people off those submarines in hours when typically it would take us days to pull into Faslane," Houston added, referring to a base in Scotland. "So it gives us an incredible opportunity and an incredible strategic position to do that."

The visits reflect increasing defense cooperation between Norway and its NATO allies. "Tromsø gives us a place where we can pull in submarines, fix material things, do personnel exchanges," Houston said at the April 3 event.

"Denmark just opened up Faroe Islands for our ability to conduct brief stops for personnel, which is absolutely a key position for us," Houston added. (In August 2022, the US Navy published a graphicindicating that USS Georgia, a cruise-missile sub, was in or near the Faroe Islands.)

Houston said at the event that the Navy was "working very closely" with Iceland on permission for "brief stops" there, and on April 18, Iceland's minister for foreign affairs said US subs not carrying nuclear weapons would be allowed to make "brief" stops in Iceland for supplies and crew exchanges, calling the decision part of Iceland's "policy to support increased monitoring and response capacity of Allied countries in the North Atlantic."

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