The USS Georgia, equipped with an underwater launch system for special forces, joins the USS Rhode Island at Faslane naval base near Glasgow in Scotland.

The USS Georgia, like the USS Rhode Island, is an Ohio-class submarine. Unlike the Rhode Island however, she was converted to a cruise missile submarine from a ballistic missile submarine.

UPDATE – This article originally claimed that the American submarine was the USS Florida, this was changed once we were informed that it was, in fact, the USS Georgia that visited Faslane.

The below image is via @SheilaLWeir, an excellent photographer of the Clyde and well worth a follow.

The visit is routine.

The U.S. Navy said that this port visit to Faslane reflects the United States’ “commitment to our allies and partners in the region and complements the many exercises, training, operations, and other military cooperation activities conducted by Strategic Forces to ensure they are available and ready to safely and effectively operate around the globe at any time”.

The last time a U.S. Navy SSBN conducted a port visit to Faslane was when USS Alaska (SSBN 732) visited in July 2019.

“This port visit strengthens the U.S./U.K. cooperation and Rhode Island’s forward presence demonstrates our capability, flexibility, and continued commitment to NATO allies.”

What is the bump on the back?

It’s a drydock for the ‘SEAL Delivery Vehicle’. The SDV is a manned submersible and a type of swimmer delivery vehicle used to deliver United States Navy SEALs and their equipment for special operations missions. It is also operated by the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service, which operates three SDVs from Astute-class submarines.

The SDV, which has been in continuous service since 1983, is used primarily for covert or clandestine missions to denied access areas. It is generally deployed from the Dry Deck Shelter on a specially-modified submarine, although it can also be launched from surface ships or land. It has seen combat in the Gulf War, Iraq War, and the US intervention in Somalia.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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109 COMMENTS

  1. Maybe an odd question but do visiting warships and subs have to pay any parking fees?
    Do they use any port facilities?

      • Is there any truth in that? It’s a royal naval base in the U.K.
        only issues that the Scottish government deals with is health, education, transport and a few other issues. Basically most things the Scottish office dealt with before devolution.
        The U.K. government don’t do themselves any favours. Scandal after failing after scandal. Doesn’t leave anytime to talk about anything good they may be trying to do.
        Great to see these big boats coming for a visit. Hopefully the U.K. can get up to 7 SSN sooner rather than later. Going forward I would love to see dreadnoughts built a bit quicker and the SSN(R) speeded up also. If the design could be finished before end of the decade and construction started as soon as there is space at barrow. Also it gives a credible option for Australia to come on board with. I hope numbers can go from the
        8 discussed just now to 10. Dreaming over

        • “Going forward I would love to see dreadnoughts built a bit quicker”

          Yup, the V boats are a bit ‘shabby’ to say the least. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were in the same position with the old R boats and the delay in their replacements. Lessons definitely not learned.

          • In fairness the Ohios look a bit grubby too, it’s always the same when a weapon system comes to the end of its life and when it’s a system as expensive as an SSBN you want to keep it as long as possible.

          • I’m very much understating things Martin, been getting some scary stories from mates.

        • I am making $92 an hour working from home. i was greatly surprised at the same time as my neighbour advised me she changed into averaging $ninety five however I see the way it works now. I experience mass freedom now that I’m my non-public boss. 
          That is what I do.. http://www.profit97.com

      • Wrong.

        The following are Reserved (meaning non-devolved) matters – amongst others:-
        (a) the defence of the realm,
        (b) the naval, military or air forces of the Crown, including reserve forces,
        (c) visiting forces,
        (d) international headquarters and defence organisations.

        Any and all financial matters / transactions / dealings pertaining to Defence finds their way to UK coffers.

        • “Do you think I came up the clyde in a banana boat”
          A phrase I’ve often heard😂😂😂😂

          • For those not familiar over here in the east its ‘ya think I’m zipped up the back?’ A phrase I’ve heard many times over the years from the Mrs!!

        • Absolutely Mark, you beat me to it….

          They don’t really need their own UK base now, Faslane has the room and facilities needed for a couple of boats, attack or bombers.

          I expect regular visits to Faslane by our US Navy friends in the years to come.

          Faslane is an excellent forward operating base for the US, I expect to see odd one at Gib too.

          • Yes John, we have much closer cooperation with our US allies than ever before. The new trident boats have the same launch systems designed by both the UK and US industry. ISTAR sharing and carrier groups. We have always had bilateral agreements with The US especially since the 1940s. We are now virtually joined at the hip. 5 eyes agreements and now closer defence cooperation between the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

          • From the early 1980’s onwards US and UK defence and foreign policy is so aligned that it’s almost indistinguishable.

        • One of my earliest childhood memories from the early 80s was a family holiday to visit friends who lived in Otter Ferry and I vividly remember us driving around Holy Loch and being positively amazed at all the ships and the sheer size of the floating dry dock. Great memories.

      • Agree, The Russians know that there are 5 NATO SSBN’s permanently on station around them but having an SSGN in the North Sea complicates matters. Mad Vlad knows we probably won’t use a tactical nuke against him but 150 TLAM fired at Murmansk could loose him his entire northern fleet. Travelling over Finland he would not even know they had been fired until warships started blowing up in their docks and its not like he has the industrial base to repair any of them. Same might go for his strategic bomber fleet.

    • Yes …. shoulder to shoulder …. if the UK Government are understandably distracted instead of … etc. etc.😀

      • Our current band of Etonian numpties are a bit distracted but the civil service and security services are still on the ball. No American president has even had a foreign policy since Bush. The US has been leading on China but Canada, Australia and the UK soon followed once China started swinging for everyone and Xi decided to wipe his backside with the Hong Kong Treaty. Much the same as with the Russians, the UK was the first country to start to oppose mad Vlad but the others quickly began to follow with the further he went.

        • Well there was a brief period of interest in the UK as the Country elected a leader (warts and all) to do a job they actually wanted done. Obviously now the job is done and they’ve discovered he has warts we can return to the grey men in suits that the civil service are more comfortable with. Let’s hope we have a Churchill waiting in the wings just in case things go pear shaped.

          • Of all the history of the British isles there was about 5 minutes when a Churchill was needed and the Labour Party knew just where to find him. I am all for the grey men in suits.

          • 😀Point taken. We all have different skills but it is all to common to see the wrong people in the wrong jobs at a given point in time. The real issue with Churchill was that he was brought in to put out a fire which should never have been allowed to start. As a country we need the right leaders for the right times and we rarely get that.

            A significant part of leadership is providing an environment where the real workers can get on with what they need to do

          • Churchill had got it wrong son many times before 1940 he was bound to get it right eventually. That being said you can have a certain respect for a man who goes from first lord of the admiralty in 1915 to the front lines in France by his own choice. I literally can’t think of another politician doing such a thing in history anywhere.

          • Had Churchill not had failures to learn from I very much doubt his efforts would have amounted to much in WW2 if indeed he would ever have strived to become PM. His motivations to move to the front lines seem to be an attempt to move to the coal face, so to speak, in order to understand the gaps in his thinking.Once he understood he must have realised that nobody at the top of Government knew what they were talking about and consequently he looked to place himself back with the sharks ready for the conflict which was already brewing.

  3. So this means that our subs are not ready for deployment 2us sub and French the other week so much for the high class astute should get the Trafalgar opparatinol again we had less trouble with them 4 astute is a joke 7 should had been built by now with the Trafalgar and astute that we will HAVE 14 Hunter killers and I would buy the new German sub with AIP system the days of nucular have gone they are great for long surverlance and we should invest more in air deffence as the sky sabre doesn’t even come in the best 20

    • I think you will find that we currently have a SSBN out on patrol, have had ever since the late 60’s actually (CASD!!!!).

    • I’m not sure how a ‘show of strength/unity” port visit has translated into our subs not being available for deployment? That’s quite a leap.

    • D wrote:

      “”I would buy the new German sub with AIP system the days of nucular have gone they are great for long surverlance “”

      I bumped into this Navy bloke called Troy (He was with his girlfirend Maria) he hinted that the up and coming Stingray will be a game changer.

      • Troy was well pi55ed off when I showed him your comment, his girlfriend is Marina, you have caused a domestic!😀

        • Put my foot in it again, I heard the old bill were sent round after somebody was heard shouting out:
          “Anything could happen in the next half hour”

          • Arn’t you thinking of Boris and his other half Farouk, understandable mistake…. I see the puppet masters are cutting Boris’s strings, one by one, looks like he’s heading for network cancellation too…..

          • I have always voted conservative, yet I have never backed BJ or his woke trouble and strife. (or May or DC for that matter) That said I cannot help but notice how the left of the political centre have gone out of their way to character assassinate him , in which to remove him, force a snap election and see in a government that will dance to the tune they play. A gov which will be EU friendly which will support the breaking up of the Uk (Scotland/Wales independence, NI to Ireland, Gib to Spain, Sovereign bases to Cyprus, FI to Argentina.) I also believe they will grant the separate parts instant admittance into the EU, whilst denying that to the remaining England which will be forced to pay reparations to the EUSSR for hurt feelings. That Brussels will demand all those politicians who promoted Brexit to have their own Nuremburg trial. I also subscribe to the theory that a lot of the union unrest has been ignited by Moscow using its Marxist Union camp followers in which to remove British help towards the Ukraine which has really hurt Putin.

            The end result will be a much weaker British isles which the EU will be happy with as will be others such as Russia,Iran and China. But to be honest, that isnt my problem its the problem of the pronoun crowd who subscribe to the view that the US,Uk, NATO are the biggest threats to the world, who will wake up one day and cry out “what have we done” when they find they have no rights in the new world order they demanded.,

            That’s my view

          • David,
            You are going to have to explain to my single brain cell what :
            “Mainline bleach”
            means.

          • Mainline is a term for injection. E.g I’m mainlining that bag of smack when I get pins. I think bleach may hurt a bit🤣🤣

          • Jonny wrote:

            Wow you subscribe to a lot of bullshit

            You are entitled to your point of view, A luxury I should add which is denied to people living across the EU, No doubt that raised a smile from you so to that end please allow me substantiate my point with actual facts:
            When Denmark, (1992 Danish Maastricht Treaty referendum) Ireland voted against the EU, ( Nice treaty 2001 and Lisbon Treaty referenda 2008) the EU refused to recognised their vote and made them take them again
            When France and Holland did similar, (2005 European Constitution referendum) the EU simply cut out the middle man and just ignored the result.
            When Italy stopped the landings of people picked up by do-gooders it was lambasted by the EU (who had enacted rules to stop Rome sending them their way)
            It has enacted fines on Poland for allowing its own judges to set rules inside Poland in feb
            It openly berated Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland for refusing to take in lots of new people
            And then there’s the UK:
            Do explain how the EU is allowed to run a part of the UK (NI) no seriously name me another part of the world(other than Moscow rule) where one nation is allowed to control another
            How about fishing, the EU stated that the Uk on leaving the club is no longer allowed to avail itself of the benefits of that club, yet they demanded that when it comes to fishing they should still retain the rights that they had under the EU. Do explain how that works?
            What about how the EU demanded that any of its 6 million citizens remaining in the Uk, came under EU law and not British law. Do explain how that works?
            When the EU had a problem with AZ (A private company half based in the EU) they enacted sanctions on the UK, tell me how does that work.
            Time and time and time again the EU has gone out of its way to make things hard for the UK, oh the do-gooders love to blame Brexit , but the fact remains the EU cannot allow its members to see a flourishing UK.
            So regards Scotland and Wales, has or has not the EU made overtunes to them regards leaving the UK, the Irish have long made it clear they want the North, despite signing in 1998 (Good Friday that they would no longer demand the unification of Ireland) Spain despite signing Gib away on an official piece of paper has EU backing to grab it, Argentina has already sent delegations to Brussels to get their hands on the Falklands.

            So with all of the above for you to digest how think you now?

            Now the way I see this, in order to keep the EU together and by punishing the Uk, the EU makes the world less safe.
            The Uk (now out of the EU) has supported the Ukraine a lot more than the rest combined (if you take out Poland) the EU would happliy force Kyiv to halt its fight agaisnt Moscow in the name of peace (with the fruit of EU membership) in which to get the gas taps running again. problem is the Uk and a number of eastern EU (Former USSR states) nations understand only too well that you cant appease Moscow. So ending the Uk as quickly as possible is a must for the unelected manderins of the EUSSR

            And you want to know the irony. I am actually pro EU.

          • Farouk.

            I understand you served.

            And you deserve a reply because you are a valued contributor to this site.

            I.m wankered after driving through lanes for several days and working shifts.

            May I reply tomorrow?

          • Daniele,
            It never fails to amaze me how so many people don’t recognise that attacks on a sovereign state don’t have to be physical especially after plenty of evidence regards the promulgation of misinformation which funny enough people are more than happy to accuse the British government of rather than Moscow, Brussels, or Tehran. 

          • “So regards Scotland and Wales, has or has not the EU made overtunes to them regards leaving the UK, the Irish have long made it clear they want the North, despite signing in 1998 (Good Friday that they would no longer demand the unification of Ireland) Spain despite signing Gib away on an official piece of paper has EU backing to grab it, Argentina has already sent delegations to Brussels to get their hands on the Falklands.”

            I cant recall any approach from the EU regarding Wales. Should Wales gain independence, Plaid Cymru would like to rejoin the EU,but that is about it (bit of an odd stance as Wales mainly voted for Brext). It would also not be too popular with Spain for example. I think you are over egging the cake a bit there TBH

          • That the problem most see it as Scotland vote to stay Wales vote to leave Northern Ireland vote to stay England vote to leave

            NO NO NO NO Britain vote to leave as one
            There not 4 vote it was one collective vote

    • It doesn’t matter what some YouTube channel says are the top20 air defence systems. Those kind of things, while entertaining are only ever based on public available facts. There are so many variations that can cause a system to be better than one or another in different situations.
      On the trafalgar class they have had to be retired as they have been in service for there designed lifetime and worked hard during that service. You see what happens when you keep subs in service past the point of design and also not maintain them to top standards. Kursk, Argentina sub etc etc.
      While more attack subs could be useful to any navy they are not something that can be bought quickly. 5 will just have to do for the Royal Navy until the rest of the astute class are finished. The 7 will have to do until the replacement class is ready.
      On the vanguards they just like the resolution class before have not missed a patrol since 1969. One boat always somewhere in the ocean with missiles on board. Vanguard will be back from refit at some point soon.
      The last point about nuclear power is not needed is false. While a conventional powered sub can have uses they cannot compare to a nuclear boat in areas like, speed underwater, distance travelled submerged, weapon load out, power generation for systems. A nuclear sub can leave its base and stay under water for 3 months and during that time travel around the world. If it stopped to pick up food somewhere it can be another 3 months. Not that a non nuclear boat can’t have uses. It just depends what you want to use your subs for.

      • Exactly, the RN used to operate a sizable fleet of SSK’s and there is a good argument today for running 5 or 6 alongside our 7 Astutes.

        It would quickly add mass.

        Long term, we need a fleet of 12 SSN’s again..

        • We need the Andrew built back up to strength. It’ll take time.

          Barrow needs to be investigated as to how that can happen. There is land available, is there the workforce?

          Add in a potential Australian build and is there the will to spend the money to get it done?

          (Billions were spaffed on COVID).

          • Simon, I was not bothered by how the engine worked. My point was that we had 28 attack subs then and only 7 now. With that 7, one has to protect the at-sea bomber, probably 2 or 3 are alongside for various reasons leaving just 3 or 4 to patrol the seven seas!

          • I was thinking along the lines of money & capability,trouble is that sub have got bigger (and more expensive) Ideally we would like to be back up to ten subs, but given the mess that happened when ordering Astute, nothing is going to happen until there replacements are ordered.

          • Thanks Simon. My background is army. We have tiered equipment. An infantry unit can be armoured infantry in Warriors, or Protected Mobility in armoured wheeled vehicles or in the light role in unarmoured TCVs. Point is we can have lots of infantry battalions but they don’t all need the most expensive, most capable platforms.
            The Navy doesn’t do this with attack subs – ie have a few SSN Astute (maybe 7!!) for the long range/long endurance work – and a lot of diesel-electric SSKs with AIP (say 10 or more).

          • I think it went back to “Options for Change” were it was decided to be a only SSN fleet and retire the diesel Upholder Class (which of course were just entering service!!) They had also been promised since the earlier 1980’s. As I understand from comments on Navy Lookout that we don’t have the ability to build diesel subs any more. I don’t what effect there is on training etc is we were to go down that route again

          • Thanks Simon. I would have thought if BAE can make something as complex as a SSBN or SSN it would be dead easy to build a less complex SSK.

          • You would have thought most of the skill are transferable.Maybe the navy think that haveing diesel subs would lead to a cut in SSN. One thing is that if we built a class of diesel subs we would also be able to entre the export market again

    • Jesus, what have you been smoking this afternoon. A Vanguard class boat has been at sea 365 days a year, every year. Without fail.

      • Must have been a nightmare to accomplish that with just three deployable subs. There is a reason you need 4. Hopefully Vanguard will finally be back in the game before long, and further reactor issues will not rear their head with the others.

        • You have 4 so you can accomplish a CASD with just the 3 running boats without too much drama. It allows for one to be in refit/prolonged maintenance as and when.

          • I understand that completely. Vanguard developed the reactor issue in 2012. That is much longer than what anyone planned for any deep refit. That must have really strained the other 3. Kudos to the crews and maintainers on the others.

          • Yes, granted know one envisaged her refit being some 7 1\2 years (2014) and counting. Then again, it’s what can happen if you end up having to refuel a reactor that wasn’t designed with a re-fuelling in mind.
            I suspect that there is now enormous pressure on to get her out and back in the patrol cycle soonest – workup and Daso will add another 6 months out, if only to relieve the pressure on Victorious and get her into refit.

      • The same stuff as on his other post when he suggested that £300million could get all the Trafalgar class back into service !!

    • It’s an area to store stuff for special forces in normally, small boats, mini subs etc. DDS, Dry deck shelter. The Ohio SSGN can use a few of the large missile tubes to store equipment also among other things.
      If interested there are some great articles about huge capabilities other than a large amount of tomahawks these boats can offer

    • Geez just one tomahawk to hit the neighbours dog howling would do nicely. Maybe take the warhead out so it doesn’t damage my house.

  6. Just visiting to ensure a gentle hand over of power at no 10. We can return favour for the yanks at a later date.

  7. NATOs chess pieces are being placed, visually, tactically and I’m sure covertly. Meanwhile in Nazi Russia its gobbling off shouting about nukes and having a tantrum time, while confirming to the world just how unstable the morons are.

      • A leader leaving in the U.K. is a very gentlemanly affair.
        PM: I resign. I will stay until my replacement is found. Need to show them how to work the dodgy flush in the the downstairs number 10 loo

          • Yeah supposedly the toilet was fine before trump visited and broken after. No either he was flushing documents down the pan again or had a massive KFC passing through😂😂😂😂🤣

      • We’re never unstable just have all 3 parties who are selfish, greedy individuals with their own agendas! We only vote for the least worse, not what or who we would really like!

        • yeah -trouble is Im not really sure who the least worst is anymore! Still at least now we can see who the new leader will be – cut from the same or from a different cloth – watch this space as they say !Its a shame Johnson squandered the large political ‘hand’ he was dealt at the last election – I think that says a lot.

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