Run silent: special ops sub becomes hub for irregular warfare.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: SPECIAL OPERATIONS

ABOARD THE USS OHIO--A short cruise on board this former nuclear-missile submarine off the coast of Washington state offers a glimpse into how the Navy and special operations forces plan to engage in covert military action.

During a three-year overhaul, the Ohio's 24 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, known as Tridents, were removed to make room for 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles and facilities for as many as 66 special operations troops, plus a 35-man joint command element.

The joint command unit could control the ship, any commando passengers and conceivably a task force of other ships, ground troops and air components, Rear Adm. Frank M. Drennan, commander of Submarine Groups 9 in Bangor, Wash., and 10 in Kings Bay, Ga., told National Defense.

Unlike the Tridents, which were developed during the Cold War to help dissuade the Soviet Union from launching a nuclear attack against the United States, the Tomahawks--armed with 1,000-pound conventional warheads--have been fired frequently in combat.

Two of the Ohio's 24 vertical missile tubes have been reconfigured to serve as lock-in/lockout chambers that allow special operators surreptitiously to exit and re-enter the sub while it is submerged.

Seven of the remaining tubes have been rebuilt to hold canisters to store equipment that the commandos will need on their missions, including "anything from rafts to munitions," said the ship's skipper, Cmdr. Michael K. Cockey.

Such capabilities will enable the four submarines that are being converted to operate dose along hostile shores--in the green, littoral waters, as opposed to the blue waters of the deep ocean--and thus play a much larger role in the war against terrorism, Drennan said.

The Ohio and its sister ships "will be ideal for playing an enhanced scout role," he said. "They can put a contingency force ashore behind enemy lines without anybody knowing they are there."

That could be useful not only in enemy territory, such as portions of Iraq, but also in countries, such as the Philippines, Indonesia or Pakistan, where the presence of U.S. troops might be politically embarrassing to the government in power. "Sometimes, we want to be basically invisible, not only to the bad guys, but to everybody," said Capt. David DiOrio, director for SSGN readiness at Submarine Forces Head quarters in Norfolk, Va. SSGN is the Navy's hull classification for a cruise missile submarine.

Submarines have hosted small numbers of special operators ever...