[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] Nuclear Submarine Equipped with Nuclear Warheads Deployed to 'Guam'

The United States has revealed the deployment of the Ohio-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine USS Maine (SSBN 741) to Guam. It is unusual to disclose the location of a strategic nuclear-powered submarine (SSBN) equipped with nuclear weapons.

The USS Maine (SSBN-741), an Ohio-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine deployed in Guam

The USS Maine (SSBN-741), an Ohio-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine deployed in Guam

On the 26th, the U.S. Pacific Fleet announced via the social networking service (SNS) Twitter, sharing four photos and stating that the USS Maine has been deployed to the Guam Naval Base.

U.S. nuclear-powered submarines are broadly divided into SSBNs, known as strategic nuclear submarines, and attack nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs). Submarines equipped with nuclear warheads are SSBNs, while those equipped with conventional warheads are SSNs. The nuclear-powered submarine USS Springfield, which docked at the Busan operational base in February, is an SSN equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Only six countries worldwide possess strategic nuclear submarines. The United States has built 16 Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarines since 1976 and currently operates 14. Each U.S. SSBN carries a crew of 150. Its submerged displacement exceeds 18,000 tons, and its length reaches approximately 170 meters.

The Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarines are said to be one of the nuclear umbrellas the U.S. provides to South Korea in times of crisis. On November 1, 2016 (local time), when North Korea's nuclear and missile tests were in full swing, the U.S. Navy's Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarine USS Pennsylvania was suddenly revealed to then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lee Sun-jin at the U.S. Naval Base in Guam.

The reason the Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarines are formidable is that they carry the Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) equipped with the W76-2 "low-yield nuclear warhead (strategic nuclear)." In February 2020, just eight days after announcing the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons, the USS Maine (SSBN 741) test-fired a Trident II missile. The Trident II is equipped with the W76-2 low-yield nuclear warhead, which has a yield of 5 to 7 kilotons, a fraction of the previous 90 to 475 kilotons.

Moon Geun-sik, a professor at Kyonggi University's Graduate School of Political Studies, said, "The U.S. revealing the location of an SSBN, which it usually avoids disclosing, is a warning emphasizing that it can be deployed to the Korean Peninsula at any time in response to North Korea."