USS Tucson fast-attack submarine relocates to Guam

The fast-attack submarine USS Tucson (SSN 770) slid into Apra Harbor on July 10, swapping its previous residence in Pearl Harbor for a brand new one at Naval Base Guam, in a routine-looking port name that carries actual weight for the way the U.S. Navy positions its undersea forces towards a quickly increasing Chinese language fleet.

Tucson, a Los Angeles-class boat commissioned in 1995, turns into the most recent addition to Submarine Squadron 15, based mostly at Polaris Level on Guam, becoming a member of what the Navy described as three different forward-deployed fast-attack submarines already stationed there. The transfer is a part of what the Navy calls its Strategic Laydown Plan, a time period that merely means deciding the place to completely station ships and submarines so essentially the most succesful forces sit closest to the locations they may truly be wanted, slightly than being unfold out for administrative comfort. Tucson’s arrival got here days after USS Jefferson Metropolis, one other Los Angeles-class boat, departed Guam for a brand new homeport at Pearl Harbor, successfully a one-for-one swap that retains the squadron’s total footprint roughly regular whereas rotating in a unique hull.

“The whole crew is honored and excited to reach in Guam,” mentioned Cmdr. Vince Bove, commanding officer, USS Tucson.

“Tucson brings an distinctive crew of Sailors who signify the easiest of our submarine pressure. We’re proud to hitch the forward-deployed workforce, strengthen warfighting readiness, and help U.S. strategic aims throughout the area. We additionally stay up for turning into a part of the Guam group that performs such a significant function in enabling our mission,” Bove mentioned.

The Guam island sits roughly 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) from the Chinese language shoreline, shut sufficient to succeed in contested waters within the South China Sea and round Taiwan shortly, but nonetheless sovereign U.S. territory, which suggests American forces there don’t want the sort of host-nation permissions that may gradual deployments from bases in Japan, South Korea, or the Philippines. That mixture, proximity with out political friction, has turned Guam into what protection planners more and more deal with as a cornerstone of American deterrence within the Pacific, alongside Andersen Air Drive Base’s rotating bomber presence and the Marine Corps’ still-under-construction Camp Blaz.

Tucson is a Flight III, or 688i, variant of the Los Angeles class, certainly one of 20 boats constructed to that improved customary and the 59th Los Angeles-class submarine total out of 62 ever constructed. The category has shaped the spine of the Navy’s assault submarine pressure for the reason that Chilly Struggle, operating about 110 meters (360 toes) lengthy and displacing roughly 6,900 tons submerged, with a high publicly acknowledged velocity above 25 knots (46 km/h), although naval analysts have lengthy estimated the true determine runs significantly greater. Powered by a single nuclear reactor, these boats carry basically limitless vary and endurance, restricted primarily by crew meals provides slightly than gas, and the 688i variants like Tucson add 12 vertical launch tubes for Tomahawk cruise missiles on high of 4 torpedo tubes able to firing Mark 48 heavyweight torpedoes and Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

That weapons combine issues as a result of it lets a single submarine credibly threaten targets on land, at sea, and underwater with out surfacing or exposing its place, which is exactly the sort of ambiguity submarine forces depend on for deterrence. Guam’s roster more and more blends these getting old however still-capable Los Angeles-class hulls with the newer Virginia-class, represented by USS Minnesota, which grew to become the primary Virginia-class boat forward-deployed to the island when it arrived in November 2024. The Virginia class is regularly changing the Los Angeles class fleet-wide as older boats attain the tip of their service lives, and Tucson’s continued deployment displays how that transition is taking part in out regularly slightly than all of sudden, with confirmed Chilly Struggle-era submarines nonetheless doing frontline work alongside their newer counterparts.

“I wish to prolong a heat welcome and Hafa Adai to the Sailors and households of Tucson,” mentioned Capt. Christopher Carter, commander, Submarine Squadron 15.

“Naval Base Guam stays a strategic outpost within the Western Pacific and performs a significant function in sustaining regional stability and deterrence. Tucson brings a proud legacy of energy, resilience, and warfighting excellence to our forward-deployed undersea pressure and arrives at a time when ahead presence and readiness matter. Their service will strengthen our posture and improve deterrence throughout the area. We’re excited to welcome the crew to the workforce and stay up for the influence they are going to have whereas serving on the tip of the spear,” Carter mentioned.

The Navy has leaned tougher into seen submarine exercise round Guam over the previous 12 months, together with a uncommon December 2025 train through which two Los Angeles-class boats, USS Asheville and USS Annapolis, surfaced collectively off the island in a coordinated photograph train that analysts described as deliberate signaling towards Chinese language army planners watching the area. Submarines sometimes maximize stealth and keep away from any visibility, so selecting to floor two of them aspect by aspect, even briefly, tends to learn as a message slightly than an accident, and it displays a broader sample of the U.S. army utilizing Guam-based belongings to remind regional actors of persistent American undersea functionality while not having to sail submarines all the way in which from the continental United States every time tensions flare.