Halibut Hangar

Originally Published February 27, 2008; Updated and Republished June 06, 2008:

In response to China's Navy exercising its nascent ability to deploy a modern "blue water force", America begins increasing its Asian military presence—this morning the submarine USS Ohio SSGN 726 moored in Busan, South Korea (see also encarta map).

USS Ohio SSBN 726 Conversion to SSGN 726

The USS Ohio SSGN 726 is an old strategic ballistic missile submarine "converted"¹ to a tactical cruise missile and joint task forces submarine platform.

Web:

• UPDATED 06/06/2008 Google->Economist, Into the wide blue yonder
• Google->AP, New US Submarines Trade Nukes for SEALs
• Google->Military Site, USS Ohio SSGN 726

-----notes-----

1. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) reduced the number of our ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) from 18 to 14. The Navy elected to convert the oldest SSBN, which have an approximately 40-45 year hull life, to SSGN.

The four converted SSBN (Ohio-SSBN 726-04-07-1979; Michigan-SSBN 727-04-26-1980; Florida-SSBN 728-11-14-1981; and Georgia-SSBN 729-11-06-1982) replaced the Trident C4 missiles with Block III and IV Cruise missiles.

The remaining 14 SSBN upgraded their Trident C4 to Trident D5 missiles.