After a 5+ year hiatus I'm back. What brought me back? This piece posted on Instapundit:U.S. makes unusual disclosure of ballistic missile submarine’s presence in Persian Gulf. lit off alarm bells for me.

Arabian Sea or Persian Gulf this is a solidly WTF maneuver. SSBN's have precisely two purposes 1) carry and deliver ballistic missiles, 2) Don't be found. Driving them around in the Persian Gulf would be like the guy in the Monty Python "How Not to Hide" skit that stands up when called. Telling people you're there just extends the idiocy.

The Persian gulf is shallow from what maps I can find 100 meter depths are rare. The Straits of Hormuz (entry to the gulf) is at most 50-75m deep even in the traffic lanes. An Ohio-Class Submarine draws 35ft of water on the surface. Including conning tower and masts I bet it takes at least 25m of water to cover it. South side of the strait is Oman's territorial waters with the shipping channels. Legalistically one is supposed to tell the owners of territorial waters before traversing it with a warship (In which class a boomer with 200+ warheads most certainly classifies). Oh and north side of the strait is Iran's (and way too shallow for a Trident anyhow)

The D5 Trident missiles the West Virginia carries have a (reported minimum) range of 7500mi/12000km range. Who is the target?
Iran? You can hit that from anywhere in the Indian Ocean no problem. Not like they can do bugger all against a ballistic shot and the extra 5-10 minutes of warning would only give them additional time to set the prayer rug down before they pray.
Russia? If you want a depressed trajectory shot at either Moscow or the missile fields you want to be up in the Arctic or maybe North Pacific. Shooting from the direction of the Arabian Sea I think will take you up across Turkey or that part of the world (sorry NOT good with visualizing great circle routes). Given in the bad old days we had Thor IRBMs and bombers stationed in Turkey its a good bet there are still Russian/ex Soviet DEW line equivalents watching that way just in case.
The Saudis?!? Is the current Administration that stupid and that desperate to get more oil? It's particularly stupid when all they really have to do is tell the Green arm of their party to pound sand for a bit. Oh sorry thats half their party and all those under 60...

Maybe an SSGN Ohio conversion might make sense to threaten Iran with its 150+ cruise missiles and the SEALs you can put on board. Of course again telling someone that you're going to use covert operatives does NOT inspire confidence in your military acumen. And of course if you're trying to get it into the Persian gulf we're back to sneaking a 170m (560') sub into the bathtub that is the Persian Gulf. I grew up in Connecticut and worked a summer at the Naval Underwater Systems Center in New London, CT. At least once we had a Trident at dock. Even the part that sticks out of the water when docked is probably 200' long. Part of the reason they stopped basing Boomers in Groton is Long Island Sound. Like the Persian Gulf it is shallow and has limited entrances/exits. Sending an Ohio class SSBN out from Groton was basically announcing to the USSR, "Hey, one of our SSBN's is going patrol come track us".

This tells me that the leadership (Commander in Chief, Secratary of Defense, JCS, CNO Strategic Command head etc) all have mush for brains. That is terrifying. People used to complain that Curtiss LeMay as the Head of SAC was a loose cannon and was going to get us all killed. I'll be honest get me Zombie Curtis LeMay and resurrect SAC. they'll make these prissy amateurs we have look about as pleasent as dog excrement on a sidewalk in a hot summer

Will I do this more? Maybe, though I thought that last time and got 5 posts. As I age I get more free time, of course I get more senile, but then again this is free (as in free beer), you get what you pay for :-) .

Tregonsee (L2) signing out for Now