Cruise missile sub

Cruise missile sub

The Navy this month completed its fourth conversion of a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine into an extremely powerful, conventionally armed cruise missile launcher and covert transporter of U.S. special operations force.

The last converted missile sub the USS Georgia is now being readied for deployment around the world at its home port of Kings Bay, Ga., said skipper, Cmdr. Rodney E. Hutton.

The conversion of the nuclear missile submarines into Tomahawk-firing submarines is one element of a new Pentagon strategy of building up forces to be ready to counter any emerging threat from China.

Cmdr. Hutton said the Georgia will operate in the Pacific, as well as other oceans and can swap out its entire crew at Guam, a major strategic U.S. military hub in the Pacific.

In a telephone interview from the submarine, Cmdr. Hutton said the new Tomahawk submarines are "extraordinary force multipliers." Two of the submarines, each equipped with 154 long-range cruise missiles, can provide the same firepower as all the Tomahawk-firing ships in the 2003 Operation Enduring Freedom, as the Iraq invasion is called.

"I see the SSGN becoming one of premier platforms for any conflict today or in the future," said Cmdr. Hutton, using the Navy's term for nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines.