The successive arrivals of American and French nuclear attack submarines at a Royal Navy base in Scotland, within days of each other, is certainly no coincidence.
According to footage shared on social media on April 26, a French Rubis nuclear attack submarine (SNA) was sighted in the waters of Faslane Naval Base, Clyde, Scotland, where nuclear attack submarines and Ballistic missile submarines of the Royal Navy are stationed.
While the US Navy and Royal Navy communicate regularly about their SNA’s stopovers, the French Navy is generally much more discreet about the movements of their submarines.
24 hours later another nuclear attack submarine, this time American, of the Virginia type and identified as USS Indiana, was also sighted at Faslane for this meeting of the very closed circle of NATO member countries who should have a nuclear attack in their arsenal -Boats and rocket launchers.
So why such a gathering?
Given the extremely high tensions in the Northern Europe region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since February 24, this show of force suggests that NATO allies clearly do not want to be intimidated. Although no explanation has yet been given for the presence of these French and American submarines in Scotland, this “meeting” is recent, suggesting that it was a message addressed to Moscow.
A strong signal, especially since the Faslane base occupies a strategic position in relation to the coveted passage to the Arctic between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom, an area frequented by Russian submarines. An area that has become crucial for supply lines between North America and Europe.
It must be said that a number of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines are said to have headed for the North Atlantic after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 27 that he had put his country’s strategic forces on special alert, according to one Article published by The Times newspaper in UK. March.
“Followed by the Western military four weeks ago, the decision to send Russian submarines closer to European shores was seen by British naval chiefs as a pose and a warning rather than a real threat,” the Times reported. “They returned to Russia soon after and resumed their normal activities.
Whatever the exact reasons that prompt an American Virginia-class submarine to join a French Rubis-class ship at a Royal Navy submarine base in Clyde, it’s certainly a new notch in the safety device. An unprecedented situation, which also testifies to the reaction of the NATO states in their deterrence mission. With NATO’s frontline anti-submarine warfare capabilities, capable of operating from facilities shared by the Alliance, at a time when Europe is experiencing its most significant geopolitical crisis in decades.