More Rumors of SSGNs Moving To Guam

A sailor in Korea sends us this, from the inbox.

The Korean Newspaper Saipan Times is reporting the USS Ohio and USS Michigan will be changing homeports to Guam in the future. The article credits Commodore Phillip Sawyer with the comment. Heard anything?

Nope, but we noticed an entry on the kitsapsun.com blog Military Life discussing the article. Ed Friedrich brings investigative reporting back in style.

Nobody at Pacific Submarine Force in Pearl Harbor had heard such a thing, nor had Lt. Kyle Raines, the public affairs guy for submarines at Naval Base Kitsap.

Raines said the Ohio and USS Michigan, both of which have been converted from ballistic weapons to cruise missiles, will remain homeported here.

They'll be forward deployed for up to 15 months, and Guam is one of the places where they can exchange crews, Raines said.

The Navy is in the middle of shifting its forces to put 60 percent in the Pacific and 40 in the Atlantic. It used to be 50-50. Part of that shift is to put subs at Guam, Raines said, "but at no point have I been aware of the Ohio being one of those submarines."

"In terms of Ohio having a permanent homeport change, that is not accurate."

Does the commodore of Submarine Squadron 15 even know what he is being attributed to saying? It sounds like a misquote, but there is plenty of history in the idea itself so it is possible its true.

The Navy is still early in the process of building up the facilities in Guam. With all the attention on the transfer of Marines off of Japanese soil to Guam, I don't have the impression the Navy has finalized plans for how many, much less which submarines (or other ships for that matter) will eventually be based in Guam. There is certainly a lot of money being spent on Guam facilities and projects, but spending money isn't a strategy. In observing the work being done on Guam, there appears to be a strategy driving the process, unfortunately there isn't a lot of public information regarding the details of that strategy.

It isn't a bad idea, it isn't even a new idea, Guam has already been targeted as the location where blue and gold crews will rotate off the SSGNs, and the logistics for supporting SSGN operations does exist in Guam. There were rumors as far back as 2003, and again in 2005.

It could come to be, but we haven't heard an official announcement of any submarines intended to be based at Guam above the 3 there now; USS Buffalo (SSN 715), USS Corpus Christi (SSN 705), and the USS Houston (SSN 713). Time will tell.