USS OHIO PORT VISIT
The United States Navy's specialised Ohio class nuclear powered submarine USS Ohio is manoeuvred by tugs in the Brisbane River on Monday. The United States Navy's surface strike mission configured nuclear powered Ohio class submarine USS Ohio has made a very rare visit to Australia. Pic DVIDS
29 JULY 2025
BRISBANE: The United States Navy's surface strike mission configured nuclear powered Ohio class submarine (the highly covert class of American submarines) USS Ohio has made a very rare visit to Australia.
The USS Ohio docked in the Brisbane River on Monday, July 27 tying up against the US Navy's specialist Emory S. Land class Submarine Tender USS Frank Cable in the lower river reaches.
The arrival of the USS Ohio in Brisbane is believed to be the first public visit by a US Navy Ohio class submarine to an Australian civilian port, if not Australia in general.
The USS Ohio's port visit to Brisbane comes two weeks shy of the 80th anniversary of Victory over Japan in August 1945, celebrating the massive contribution US Navy submarines operating out of the Brisbane River made to the defeat of Imperial Japan.
It is not clear if USS Ohio is undergoing any maintenance or sustainment delivered by the USS Frank Cable which is tasked with supporting the United States Navy submarine fleet in forward locations.
The USS Ohio is one of the US military's most critical deterrence platforms, with the submarine mission configured for the surface strike role armed with a massive magazine of UGM-109 submarine launched Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM) and her arrival in Brisbane is a clear US statement of both reach and support of her ally Australia.
The USS Ohio was originally commissioned as a nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine armed with 24 Trident II C4 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) each armed with up to eight MIRVed W76 nuclear warheads, but was converted to a specialised conventional precision strike platform in 2007 armed with UGM-109E Block V Tomahawk TLAMS.
In her current configuration USS Ohio fields 22 vertical launch missile tubes, each armed with seven encapsulated UGM-109E Block V TLAMS, for a total of 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
USS Ohio is one of only four Ohio class nuclear powered conventionally armed submarines converted to conventional cruise missile strike capability, alongside sister ships USS Michigan, USS Florida and USS Georgia.
The US Navy fields 14 other Ohio class ballistic missile submarines that retain their original Trident II missile batteries armed with the MIRVed W76 nuclear warhead which are the primary American nuclear deterrent.
At least one other US Navy nuclear powered submarine, if not more, is likely currently operating in Australian waters with the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group which is participating in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025.
While it is the first visit to an Australian east coast port by an Ohio class nuclear powered submarine, US Navy Virginia and Los Angeles class attack submarines are frequent and increasing visitors to the Royal Australian Navy's HMAS Stirling Fleet Base West at Rockingham in Western Australia.
Nuclear submarine activity into Fleet Base West is set to exponentially expand from 2027 with the commencement of semi basing of rotational US Navy Virginia class and Royal Navy Astute class SSGNs under the Submarine Rotational Force - Western Australia (SURF-West) program from 2027.
From 2032, the Royal Australian Navy will begin its own nuclear powered guided missile submarines with the first of up to five Virginia class SSGNs operating under the White Ensign out of Fleet Base West.
