The Ohio-class guided missile submarine USS Florida (SSGN 728) makes her way through Cumberland Sound to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in the southeastern corner of Coastal Georgia, just north of the Florida border Apr. 11, 2006.  (U.S. Navy/Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Lynn Friant)

By  Gary  Raynaldo   –   DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

The Navy deployed its nuclear submarine USS Florida capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles  to the Middle East this week. A U.S. Navy spokesman said  the guided-missile submarine entered the Suez Canal on Friday from the Mediterranean Sea bound for U.S. 5th Fleet. The deployment was meant to be a show of force to Iran amid on-going U.S.-Tehran tensions, according to Associated Press.   The U.S. launched airstrikes against Iran-backed forces in Syria last month in retaliation after a rocket attack killed a U.S. contractor and wounded seven other Americans in the country’s northeast.  The Pentagon said a suspected Iranian-made drone was responsible for the deadly strike.   U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the direction of President Biden he authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes on March 23 in eastern Syria “against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).”

USS Florida was launched on 14 November 1981

USS Florida (SSGN-728)  (US NAVY) 

USS Florida (SSBN-728/SSGN-728), an Ohio-class cruise missile submarine, is the sixth vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the U.S. state of Florida. She was commissioned with the hull designation of SSBN-728; with her conversion to a cruise missile submarine, from a ballistic missile submarine, she was re-designated SSGN-728. As of November 2002, Florida had successfully completed 61 strategic deterrent patrols.  Florida was launched on 14 November 1981 sponsored by Mrs. Marcia M. Carlucci, wife of then Deputy Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci. The reactor was initially taken critical on 13 November 1982; the boat went into service and the crew moved onboard on 21 January 1983.