Report: U.S. aircraft carrier in Atlantic amid increased Russia submarine activity

by WorldTribune Staff, July 1, 2018

The United States has deployed the USS Harry S. Truman to the Atlantic Ocean amid “growing evidence that Russia continues to push its newest attack submarines to operate the North Atlantic at a pace not seen since the Cold War,” a report said.

USS Harry S. Truman. / U.S. Navy photo

The Truman Strike Group embarked with an escort fleet that includes up to six guided-missile destroyers and the German Navy guided missile frigate FGS Hessen, a defense official confirmed to USNI News.

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at CSBA, told USNI that carrier strike group operations in the Atlantic “make sense for high-end exercises for the U.S. and partner nations. Both the UK Royal Navy and the French Navy field effective submarine forces that haven’t trained much lately with U.S. surface ships.”

“Our Atlantic coast guys need a chance to train against good submariners,” Clark said. “Either they’re doing it with the French or the British for training or for hope of finding a Russian submarine.”

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson “has alluded to an increased Russian submarine presence in public statements about the need for the Navy to operate differently in a new era,” USNI’s June 29 report said.

“Russian submarines are prowling the Atlantic, testing our defenses, confronting our command of the seas, and preparing the complex underwater battlespace to give them an edge in any future conflict,” current U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa commander Adm. James Foggo wrote in U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings in 2016.

“Not only have Russia’s actions and capabilities increased in alarming and confrontational ways, its national-security policy is aimed at challenging the United States and its NATO allies and partners.”


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