Navy sub returns from rare "surge" deployment

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/06/navy-sub-returns-rare-surge-deployment



The Virginia-class attack submarine Missouri transits the Thames River as it departs the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn. on June 18, 2013.

Navy sub returns from rare "surge" deployment
By Michael Melia
The Associated Press
© June 11, 2014

HARTFORD, Conn.

A Navy submarine has returned to its Connecticut base from a rare spur-of-the-moment deployment, completing a secret 11-week mission that sent it to European waters.

The Missouri, which came back to Groton over the weekend, was on the first "surge deployment" involving an attack submarine to be announced by the Navy in eight years.

While the military has declined to provide details, it said the submarine left on March 24 to conduct "security missions in the U.S. European Command region." At the time, Russia was completing its takeover of Crimea, and the U.S. Navy has sent three surface ships to the Black Sea since the escalation of tensions.

Attack submarines typically deploy overseas for about six months, then return home for a yearlong period that allows for training at sea and onshore, evaluation of the submarine and leave time for the sailors.