In a rare announcement, the US military said a guided missile submarine has arrived in the Middle East, a message of deterrence clearly directed at regional adversaries as the Biden administration tries to avoid a broader conflict amid the Israel-Hamas war.

US Central Command said on social media Sunday that an Ohio-class submarine was entering its area of responsibility. A picture posted with the announcement appeared to show the sub in the Suez Canal northeast of Cairo.

The social media post did not name the sub, but the US Navy has four Ohio-class guided missile submarines, or SSGNs, which are former ballistic missile subs converted to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles rather than nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

  • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    This seems… escalatory, inflammatory.

    There’s no way the US military starts firing missiles into Gaza. Who exactly is this message aimed at? Iran?

    • Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      As soon as the attack on October the 7th happened, the US essentially panicked, as this would probably result in instability in the whole region with possible Iranian intervention. They already have an aircraft carrier and several destroyers. They have a whole fleet near Iran if I’m not mistaken (in international waters, obviously). On the other hand, they’re publicly telling Israel not to escalate the conflict. Clearly the last thing Biden wants is for the violence to spread out

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        I think it’s in response to this event specifically:

        IDF Arrow intercepts ballistic missile fired from Yemen

        Probably making a public stayment about the submarine was intended as a direct threat against this group and any others with similar intentions. The message is basically “stop that or we wil stop you”.

        Tomahawks would be the weapon of choice for destroying land-based ballistic missile launching systems.

    • steventhedev@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Iran, Hezbollah, and Houthi are the primary audience, but the message is also intended for Russia (indirectly).

      This matches up with the public statements by Biden, Blinken, and other US officials that all the forces currently being added to the Middle East are there as deterrence. The US have been running drone surveillance flights over Gaza for a few weeks - I assume to corroborate the intelligence being handed to them by Israel.

      The other half of this message is to Russia - likely in response to their withdrawl from the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. I’m not confident enough to speculate on what the intended message is, but I’m certain it was intended for them as well.

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, it’s just… It’s a bad idea to walk into a room and wave a gun around, unless you plan to actually use the gun.

        • steventhedev@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          As an individual person yes. Geopolitics work differently.

          It’s a big thing to show off your military. Dances, parades, war games, training exercises, and stuff like this. In some cases, you can even attack and it won’t be considered a declaration of war - if you attack an empty post, it sends a signal that you don’t want to escalate, but that you need to “respond” to satisfy some internal pressure or to save face.

          Using a nuke on an empty spot would be a bit extreme though. Let’s hope no one is crazy enough to actually do that or worse.

          • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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            1 year ago

            Oh, this is probably why:

            IDF Arrow intercepts ballistic missile fired from Yemen

            Probably the public statement about the submarine full of cruise missiles is intended as a direct threat to this group and any others with similar intentions. The message is basically “stop that or we will stop you”.

            The Tomahawks on the submarine would be the weapon of choice for destroying land-based ballistic missile launching systems.

    • Bonesince1997@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This one might be a little harder to manage, being it a sub rather than a ship, not a research ship, and shoots back. Would think it’d be harder to make excuses such as those back in the 60s today. Israel was pretty young then, too.

  • Siegfried@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The next POTUS is going to have an interesting term if things keep going south

    Americans, please vote responsibly

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      So Biden? His challengers are a self help guru and another moderate businessman. On the right I don’t see anything but Trump ans Trump wannabes. It’s really not too heartening. I guess there is Uygur, but being Turkish born he is automatically disqualified anyway. And if he gets his pipe dream of changing that, it means the right would get Elon Musk on their ballot. I can almost guarantee he would run, and likely win… that’s nearly as scary as Trump.

  • ShroOmeric@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    These are guys that are supposed to bring peace, eh? Guess we’ll have peace only AFTER the genocide has ended.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’d say the missile cruiser who was in the right place at the right time to intercept a swarm of missiles from Yemen was definitely a peace bringer. Keeping Iran or Hezbollah out of the mess is definitely a plus on the side of peace. Sometimes the the only thing you can do is keep the violence from spreading, from metastasizing, from burning out of control.

      This is clearly a message to all the neighbors that they would regret taking advantage

    • Redrum714@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Gaza had plenty of decades to be peaceful yet here we are. Radical Islam going to radical

  • satan
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    1 year ago

    The country built on genocide, supporting its interests, facilitating a genocide by its vassal state.

    surprised pikachu

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    In a rare announcement, the US military said a guided missile submarine has arrived in the Middle East, a message of deterrence clearly directed at regional adversaries as the Biden administration tries to avoid a broader conflict amid the Israel-Hamas war.

    “SSGNs can deliver a lot of firepower very rapidly,” said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center told CNN in 2021.

    The magnitude of that firepower was shown in March 2011, when the guided missile sub USS Florida fired almost 100 Tomahawks against targets in Libya during Operation Odyssey Dawn.

    In June, the Navy publicized the visit of one of its two West Coast-based SSGN’s, USS Michigan, to South Korea as a show of US commitment to its Indo-Pacific allies.

    The announcement of a guided missile sub in the region comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been holding a series of meetings with US partners in the Middle East.

    In addition to emphasizing the need to protect civilians and provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza, Austin said the US was committed to deterring “any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this conflict,” a clear reference to Iran and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group.


    The original article contains 599 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!