A new class of U.S. superweapon suddenly surfaced near China last week. It was an Ohio-class submarine. Another popped up in the Philippines’ Subic Bay and a third in Pusan, South Korea, on the same day.
For nearly three years, the U.S. Navy has been dispatching modified “boomers” to who knows where. Four of the 18 ballistic-missile subs no longer carry nuclear-tipped Trident missiles. Instead, they hold up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles each, capable of hitting anything within 1,000 miles with non-nuclear warheads.
In all, the Chinese military awoke July 4th to find as many as 462 new Tomahawks deployed by the U.S. in its neighborhood. “There’s been a decision to bolster our forces in the Pacific,” says Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “There is no doubt that China will stand up and take notice.”
However, U.S. officials deny that any message is being directed at Beijing, saying the Tomahawk triple play was a coincidence.
