The United States has doubled the fleet of nuclear submarines off the coast of Europe

The United States has dramatically increased its presence of nuclear submarines off the coast of Europe amid the war in Ukraine and threats to use nuclear weapons by Russian officials up to and including President Vladimir Putin.

The number of U.S. submarine calls to the port of Faslane in Scotland, a key supply base for the NATO fleet, has almost doubled in 2022, according to the UK Defense Journal.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Navy submarines, including state-of-the-art Virginia-class ships, have made 85 visits to a Scottish port, up from 43 in all of last year.

The increased presence of submarines, including those armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of 1.6 thousand km, reflects the “US commitment” to protecting allies and partners, the command of the US Navy explained earlier. The transfer of ships “complements the exercises, training and activities of military cooperation,” and their purpose is to guarantee “effective operations anywhere in the world,” the fleet explained.

At the end of October, we recall, the Pentagon published an updated version of the military doctrine, in which it called Russia a “nuclear threat” to American territory and allied countries.

In military planning, the United States takes into account that the conflict with the use of conventional weapons involving Russia has “the potential to escalate to nuclear,” and “of any scale,” the document says.

In the next decade, according to the strategy, the Pentagon intends to conduct a “full-scale modernization” of all components of the nuclear deterrence force. The Minuteman III ballistic intercontinental missiles, which have been in service since the early 1970s, will be replaced by new Sentinel missiles, which are being developed by Northrop Grunman.

Ohio-class nuclear submarines, armed with 14 ballistic missiles each, which were built from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, will be replaced by Columbia-class ships, the first of which was laid down in October 2020 and is expected to enter the fleet in early 2030s.

The B-2A Spirit strategic bombers will be replaced by the B-21 Raider, which will be built using Stealth technology and is expected to enter service in 2026-2027.