38 NEWSWEEK.COM
warheads were delivered to the Navy. That W76-2
is thought to have an explosive yield of between 5–6
kilotons (5–6 thousand tons)—about one-third the
size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Kristensen estimates that some 50 of these small,
“prompt” warheads will be deployed on Trident
submarines, and that two of the 24 missiles aboard
each of 12 submarines will be so armed.
On October 30, 2016, a day before Global Thun-
der 17 ended, the USS Pennsylvania, a Trident bal-
listic missile submarine based in Washington state,
surfaced in Apra Harbor, Guam. It was the first visit
of a ballistic missile submarine to Guam in 28 years
and only the third Trident submarine to make a
foreign port visit since 9/11.
“This visit is a clear demonstration of the highly
survivable and lethal capabilities the United States
brings to bear in support of the unwavering extend-
ed deterrence commitments to our allies,” said Adm.
Harry Harris, then the commander for U.S. Pacific
Command (and now U.S. ambassador to South Korea).
The voyage of the USS Pennsylvania was an intro-
duction to its unique and expanded “tactical” duty,
one that was now extending the mission of nuclear
submarines beyond Russia and China.
Nine months later, another ballistic missile sub-
marine, the USS Kentucky, showed up off Dutch
Harbor in the Aleutian Island chain of Alaska, just
3,400 miles from its North Korean targets.
Trident submarines rarely surface once they
leave their ports, operating on 100-day cycles,
about 70 days underwater followed by 30 days re-
plenishment before a new crew takes over. Since
Donald Trump has become president, though, four
Trident submarines have surfaced during their pa-
trols, the two in the Pacific and two others in the
Atlantic, both making port calls in Scotland.
To conduct visible nuclear diplomacy, the U.S.
military relies on its 156-strong bomber force—the
B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, the venerable B-52 Stra-
tofortress bombers and even the conventional-only
B-1 Lancer bomber.
Last May, as the Trump administration began
accelerated military deployments “in response to
a number of troubling and escalatory indications
and warnings” from Iran, bombers played a visible
role. B-52 bombers were deployed to an airbase in
Qatar, on the Persian Gulf, for two months. And at
the end of October, B-1 bombers flew from South
Dakota all the way to Saudi Arabia, the first time
heavy bombers were on the ground in that country
since Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
But then bombers more or less disappeared
from Middle East skies. Global Thunder 20, this
year’s nuclear exercise, completely focused on a
Russia scenario. The scenario for the October 2019
exercise had been selected more than a year before.
Last week, six B-52 bombers showed up on the
Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, the first time
bombers have forward based to the British-con-
trolled territory in more than a decade. Retired
Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle told Air
Force Times that the placement of the bombers
3,000-plus miles from the southern edge of Iran
put them out of range of Tehran’s medium-range
ballistic missiles.