America's nuclear submarine fleet carrying missiles 'messengers of war'

Ohio-class submarines can stealthily approach enemy shores and launch Tomahawk cruise missiles to attack targets farther away than surface ships.

USS Ohio submarine on patrol

Since the late 1970s, the US Navy has built 18Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) to deter the Soviet Union. After the Cold War ended, the US decided to convert four Ohio-class submarines, dismantlingTrident ballistic missileand equip themTomahawk land-attack cruise missile (TLAM), a type of missile commonly used by the US in the early stages of the wars, according toNational Interest.

After being upgraded with weapons, eachThe converted Ohio-class submarine carries 154 Tomahawks in 22 of its 24 missile launch tubes,more cruise missiles than a fleet of surface ships. All of these missilescan be launched in salvos from underwater for 6 minutes.

The Tomahawk missile costs $1.5 million each, is equipped with a 454 kg warhead, has a range of about 1,600 km, and is guided by a global positioning system (GPS). It is called a "war messenger" because the US often uses Tomahawk to preemptively strike the enemy in many wars from the Gulf War to the present.

The SSGNs, armed with Tomahawk missiles, are capable of performing a variety of missions. The remaining two launch tubes are converted into special hatches to deploy more than 60 Navy SEALs. They are also used to launch unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), SEAL submarines (SDVs), sonar buoys, and other underwater sensors.

Missile cluster in a launch tube of an Ohio-class SSGN. Photo: Reddit.

The Ohio-class SSGN quickly became more capable of performing missions than the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.In 2011, the USS Florida fired 93 missiles at Libyan air defenses in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn. The missiles cleared the way for coalition aircraft to begin operations over Libya, marking the first time an Ohio-class submarine had fired in combat.

The advent of new-generation anti-ship missiles such as the Russian Kalibr has made close-in combat extremely dangerous, especially for large surface ships such as aircraft carriers and cruisers. Even carrier-based fighters require aircraft carriers to get within 800 miles of an enemy’s coastline. This distance is within range of a wide range of carrier-killing weapons.

In contrast, an SSGN can approach an enemy shoreline undetected. This allows it to hit targets farther inland, while remaining less visible than a surface ship or strike aircraft. An Ohio can launch its missiles, then dive and silently flee to avoid return fire.

The Ohio class can suppress and destroy anti-aircraft and anti-ship missile systems in the first wave of Tomahawk cruise missiles, opening the way for aircraft and surface ships to exploit gaps in enemy defenses.

An Ohio-class SSGN submarine. Photo: Global Security.

However, the Ohio-class fleet carrying Tomahawk missiles will only be used by the US Navy for about another decade before being decommissioned and replaced by the new generation of Columbia SSBNs.

The traditional land attack role will be performed by Virginia-class submarines equipped with a weapons module capable of launching 40 Tomahawks. Although carrying fewer missiles than the Ohio-class submarines, the Virginia class can distribute firepower more evenly across the fleet, making it suitable for most US war scenarios, short of World War III.

Until then, the four Ohio-class SSGNs remained the world's most heavily armed cruise missile submarines, providing an effective tool to counter the threat ofanti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategythe enemy, military expert Sebastien Roblin concluded.

According to VNE