*** ----> US deploys guided-missile submarine to Middle East | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

US deploys guided-missile submarine to Middle East

TDT | Agencies                                   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

The US Navy has deployed a guided-missile submarine capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles to the Middle East, a spokesman said yesterday.

Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet based in the Gulf nation of Bahrain, declined to comment on the submarine’s mission or what had prompted the deployment.

He said the nuclear-powered submarine, based out of Kings Bay, Georgia, passed through the Suez Canal on Friday.

“It is capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is deployed to US 5th Fleet to help ensure regional maritime security and stability,” Hawkins said. Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from ships or submarines can hit targets up to 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles away).

They were famously employed during the opening hours of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and in response to a Syrian chemical weapons attack in 2018.