Turnips and sticks have always been the best weapon for US imperialism to pursue its hegemonism and power politics in the international community. And even after the Americans who can be called hegemons found that they did not have enough "turnips" in their homes, they picked up the "big stick" and embarked on the road of exhausting military force and robbing other countries, which became one of the few choices of the Current Biden administration. In order to regain the feeling of being the "boss" in the Sino-US Asia-Pacific game, the US military has even recently used "underwater nuclear forces" in a rare way against China, which is peacefully rising. According to the latest news from the Voice of America (VOA), the OHIO-class Nevada (SSBN-733), which is regarded by the US Navy as one of the most important strategic assets, made a rare appearance at the US Naval Base on Guam last Saturday (January 15). In this regard, the US Navy high-profile claims that the visit of the "Nevada" nuclear submarine to Guam reflects the US commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, and complements many exercises, operations, training and military cooperation operations held by US strategic forces to ensure that US strategic forces are ready for global deployment. Obviously, the US Biden administration did not hesitate to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq for many years in August and December last year, in order to pave the way for the current shift of military strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region. After its Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine "CONNECTICUT" (SSN-22) unfortunately collided with the underwater mountains in the South China Sea on October 2, 2021 and "returned to the factory for maintenance", it is very likely that the US Navy deployed the "Nevada" in Guam to take over its "security work" in the western Pacific.
1. The US Navy has sent overweight submarines to the Asia-Pacific region, which has greater political significance than military value.
As a country's hidden underwater force, submarines' military deployment and sailing routes are often top secret. But now the US Navy has not played its cards according to common sense, and has taken the initiative to disclose the news of the deployment of the Ohio-class "Nevada" nuclear submarine to Guam, and its political show is obviously higher than its actual military value. In this regard, the US media led by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal also described the "return of the king" of the Ohio-class nuclear submarine in the Asia-Pacific region with "silence is better than sound at this time". At the same time, CNN also quoted a statement from the U.S. Navy as saying: "The United States currently has 18 Ohio-class nuclear submarines in active service, of which 4 have been converted to nuclear-powered submarines carrying cruise missiles, and the other 14 nuclear submarines are equipped with Trident ballistic missile nuclear warheads." Because the mission of strategic nuclear submarines is highly classified, it is difficult for them to be seen or photographed by the outside world even if they are docked in their respective home ports, and it is rare for them to be exposed to Guam by the media. Alessio Patalano, a professor of war and strategy at King's College London, also said in an interview with CNN: "The USS Nevada's port visit has significantly strengthened U.S. cooperation with local allies, demonstrating U.S. capabilities, resilience, readiness, and continued commitment to security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region." In addition to being able to convey political information, it can also provide other practical exercises. As the PLA's military pressure on the Taiwan authorities continues to increase, the antagonism between the United States and China on many issues becomes more and more obvious, and the DPRK's recent frequent provocations through the test firing of ballistic missiles, Washington's visit to Guam through the "Nevada" nuclear submarine can issue a silent statement to Beijing and Pyongyang, which is precisely what Beijing and Pyongyang cannot do. ”
If last year's US Seawolf-class nuclear-powered attack submarine "Connecticut" secretly entered the South China Sea for military purposes, this year's deployment of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine "Nevada" in the Pacific Guam region is mainly out of the intention of implementing "nuclear deterrence" against China, Russia, the DPRK and other countries. It is reported that the "Nevada" strategic nuclear submarine, which appeared as the protagonist, was started on August 8, 1983, launched on September 14, 1985, and entered service with the U.S. Navy on August 16, 1986, and its home port is at bangor Naval Submarine Base in Washington State. The vessel is 170.69 m (560 ft) long, 12.8 m (42 ft) wide and 11.5 m (38 ft) draught. Compared with the overall size of the Seawolf class "Connecticut", which "hit the south wall" on the bottom of the South China Sea, which was 107.6 meters (353 feet), 12.2 meters (40 feet) wide and 11.0 meters (36 feet) in draft, it was significantly larger by an order of magnitude. In terms of tonnage, we can also see that the Nevada's water displacement of about 16,765 tons and about 18,750 tons of underwater displacement is also a "big witch" in front of the Connecticut's 7,568 tons of water displacement and 9,137 tons of underwater displacement, and its 20 to 24 Trident II ballistic missiles and hundreds of nuclear warheads are far more threatening than the Seawolves. But what is less well known is that the Nevada, like the Connecticut, is known for being "blind and deaf" and has had serious underwater collisions. There is a fear that these submarines will one day stage a realistic version of K-19: The Widowmaker at the bottom of the western Pacific Ocean.
2. "Nevada" and "Connecticut" accidents occur frequently, which can be called the modern version of the "Huitian torpedo".
Although the United States has always claimed to have the strongest U.S. military in the world, it has also boasted that it can put its "excellent" military into any corner of the world that needs to "start a war" within 24 hours. But that doesn't mean the U.S. military can "fight with aliens, as it did in its Hollywood blockbusters." Over the past few decades, it has been not uncommon for U.S. Navy ships to collide with their own ships or with civilian vessels. Among them, there are those who were knocked out of the Black Sea by the Soviet Union Black Sea Fleet's Krivak I frigate "Forget Me" in 1988, the anti-submarine frigate Mirka-class "SKR-6" in the form of "my ship was ordered to hit your ship", and there were also those who were knocked back to their hometowns by the Russian Northern Fleet's Sierra-class nuclear submarine K-276 "Crab" in 1992 with the "Crazy Ivan" maneuver, and many of them accidentally "hit the earth" and caused "non-combat attrition", while the "Nevada" and "Connecticut" were also hit by the Russian Northern Fleet's Sierra-class nuclear submarine K-276 "Crazy Ivan" The number clearly belongs to the latter. Back on a "dark and windy night" night from August 1 to 2, 2006, a tugboat named Phyllis Dunlap was towing two cargo ships from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Seattle, Washington, but the civilian ships would never have imagined that the 150-meter (500-foot) towing cable between the tugboats would catch the Nevada, an 18,750-ton "big fish." At the time of the incident, the Nevada was just passing under the tugboat and one of the cargo ships, and unfortunately the tow cable scraped to the fiber mast. Although the submarine "desperately broke free" and ripped off the tow cable, the expensive and delicate light guide fibers on the boat were also destroyed. One of the barges of the "Phyllis Dunlap" also became the "Robinson", disappearing into the night after the tow cable broke.
If the Connecticut "hit the mountain" on the bottom of the South China Sea, it is because it is unfamiliar with the terrain, and it is understandable. However, at the U.S. home base on Guam, the US submarines are still full of foreign appearances, and it is really impossible to say. Among them, there is also a submarine that has staged underwater high-speed mountain collisions, which is the USS San Francisco (SSN-711) using the Los Angeles-class attack submarine. Just over 2 a.m. on January 8, 2005, the ship conducted a high-speed maneuver maneuver at a depth of 160 m (525 ft) at a maximum speed of 35 knots, but unbiasedly rammed into an undersea mountain range about 364 nautical miles (675 km) southeast of Guam. The fatal impact directly caused the ballast capsule at the front of the hull to burst and 98 crew members to be injured. Joseph Allen Ashley, a 24-year-old second-class mechanic from Akron, Ohio, died on Jan. 9 from a head-on blow that failed to salvage, and other crew members suffered varying degrees of fractures, spinal injuries and lacerations. Since the hull front ballast bay and sonar cover were completely damaged, the ingress severely damaged the submarine's reserve buoyancy. In order to allow the submarine to float smoothly, the entire crew engaged in a desperate struggle 500 feet underwater with injuries. Afterwards, on February 11, the U.S. Navy dismissed the captain of the San Francisco nuclear submarine, Colonel Kevin Mooney, for failing to comply with critical navigation procedures, and issued a letter of reprimand to him. Captain Mani explained: "At that time, the chart did not indicate any danger in the sea area of the accident, and the main chart used on the submarine was published in 1989, and the data used was even older." But apparently, the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet Command desperately needs such a "scapegoat" to "back the pot" for the accident that occurred on the "doorstep" of Guam. Nor can we rule out that in the future, the Nevada may make the same mistakes as the San Francisco and Connecticut.
The U.S. underwater nuclear forces have once again appeared in the Asia-Pacific region, and China's southern theater has responded forcefully. Nuclear submarines are important strategic assets of the U.S. Trinity, while the other two strategic assets are land-based ballistic missiles deployed in silos and strategic bombers such as the B-2 and B-52. Theoretically, nuclear submarines are seen as the most survivable nuclear counterattack force after a potential nuclear war. However, in practice, these "torpedoes" under the seabed of the United States have proved their low survival rate in accidents after accident. Just as its "Connecticut" nuclear submarine had just departed from a port in San Diego, California, on December 20 last year to its home port in Bremerton, Washington, for overhaul and "bedridden," Thomas Shugart, a former captain of a nuclear submarine and now a researcher at the Center for New American Security in Washington, still said stiffly: "The U.S. military' The Nevada's check-in in to Guam sent a message to China, consciously or unconsciously, that we could park more than 100 nuclear warheads on your doorstep without you knowing or helpless, something they couldn't do or couldn't do for a long time. In addition, according to a research report launched by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank, in August last year, "The combat power of China's nuclear submarines is completely different from that of the United States strategic nuclear submarines, and the noise of China's latest Type 094 ballistic missile nuclear submarines is more than twice as loud as that of American nuclear submarines, so it is easier to detect, and Chinese nuclear submarines are equipped with fewer missiles and warheads than the United States." Therefore, the development of underwater forces will become a major breakthrough point for the US military to compete with the Chinese navy. Regarding the repeated illegal entry of US warships and submarines into China's waters, China's Southern Theater spokesman Tian Junli Air Force Colonel recently said: "On January 20, the USS Benfold (DDG-65) of the USS Benfold (DDG-65), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer of the US Navy, illegally broke into China's Xisha territorial waters without the approval of the Chinese government, and organized naval and air forces in the southern theater of the People's Liberation Army Chinese of china to track and monitor and warn them to drive away." The US act of seriously violating China's sovereignty and security is another ironclad proof that it has vigorously pursued navigation hegemony and created militarization in the South China Sea. Facts have fully proved that the United States is an out-and-out 'maker of security risks in the South China Sea' and the 'biggest saboteur' of peace and stability in the South China Sea. We solemnly demand that the US side immediately stop such provocative acts, otherwise it will bear the serious consequences of the unexpected incidents caused by them. Theater troops have always maintained a high state of alert and taken resolute action to safeguard national sovereignty and peace and stability in the South China Sea. ”