In Photo: Sailors lash the USS Key West to the dock shortly after the nuclear submarine arrived at the Subic Bay Freeport on Wednesday morning.
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—USS Key West (SSN-722), a nuclear submarine of the US Navy, docked at the Alava Wharf here on Wednesday morning amid music from the brass band of an Olongapo City grade school.
The visit, however, was not announced by the US Embassy in Manila, which regularly notifies the media about the arrival of American warships docking in this free port.
Speculations here are rife that the vessel has been placed here on standby for the duration of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ meeting in Manila, which will be attended by US President Barack Obama.
The Apec conference is scheduled from November 16 to 20.
The Key West, a Los Angeles-class submarine, is the fourth of her class to be equipped with the vertical launch system (VLS), which is capable of carrying 12 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles within a range of 1,700 nautical miles, or 3,100 kilometers.
It also carries torpedoes and has mine-laying capabilities.
The submarine is a veteran of numerous exercises in the Pacific, having supported operations of the US Navy’s Third and Seventh Fleets from 1998 to 2001.
Following the September 11 attacks in the US, Key West was said to be have been redirected to the Northern Arabian Sea, where she launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against targets in Afghanistan in October 2001.
In 2007 and 2009, it received the “Battle E” designation, which is given to the best submarine in the squadron.
USS Key West is now homeported in Guam, having been shifted to the naval base there in 2012 as a forward deployed unit for the Seventh Fleet.
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/us-nuclear-submarine-docks-in-subic-bay/
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