U.S. Guided-Missile Submarine Sent to the Middle East After Recent Attacks on Troops

The United States Navy announced that it would be sending one of its nuclear-powered attack submarines, the USS Florida, to the Middle East after recent strikes on US forces and its allies. The USS Florida has joined the Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain. It passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea on Friday, April 7. It is not usually announced where submarines are being deployed for security reasons. This deployment comes after two weeks since a drone killed an American contractor in Syria, leading to the death of twelve service members and injuring another dozen. The US responded by launching airstrikes on groups tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Last month, the US Navy moved the USS George H.W. Bush carrier group to the Middle East.

In recent times, Iran and its affiliated groups have carried out more than 80 attacks on American forces since 2021. The United States has several hundred soldiers in Syria hunting down members of ISIS, although the situation has become a proxy war with Iran in the country. The USS Florida is in the area to assist in maritime security and is also capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, according to Commander Timothy Hawkins, the Navy spokesman. Besides land-based conflicts with Iranian-linked groups, the US and its allies have also been interrupting several ships traveling in the waters around the Middle East carrying Iranian weapons and explosive materials, many of which are en route to Yemen, in support of the Houthi forces there.

Recent tensions with Iran are not the only security concern in the Middle East. This past week, a drone attack hit near the Sulaimaniyah airport in northern, Kurdish-controlled Iraq. The leader of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which are working with the US to fight ISIS in the region, Mazloum Abdi, was unhurt, and said that he was with members of the US-led coalition at the time of the attack. The SDF claims that Turkey was responsible for the attack, but Turkey denied carrying out any operation. Turkey is a NATO ally, but it considers the Kurdish forces to be a terrorist group.

The photo of USS Florida traveling through the Suez Canal was taken by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Elliot Schaudt, U.S. Navy.

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