US nuke submarine docks at Subic for routine port call

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines — A US nuclear attack submarine, which launched the first Tomahawk missiles against Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s regime, docked here yesterday for what the US Navy described as a routine port call.

The 360-foot, 6,900-ton USS Cheyenne, assigned to the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, is equipped with vertical launch cruise missiles and Submarine Advanced Combat System.

Left-wing groups protested the presence of the submarine in Philippine waters.

Malacañang clarified that the vessel, while nuclear powered, does not have nuclear weapons and therefore is not barred by the Constitution from entering Philippine territory.

The Cheyenne, whose homeport is Pearl Harbor, was commissioned in 1996 and is the last of the Los Angeles-class submarines to be built by the US. The vessel is named after a town in Wyoming.

The submarine was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and is the subject of Tom Clancy’s novel “SSN” about a war against China in the Spratlys.

Port calls in the Philippines by US Navy vessels have increased since Washington announced a pivot to the Asia-Pacific from US engagements in the Middle East, North Africa and Central and South Asia.

The pivot is being undertaken as China becomes increasingly assertive in the region, escalating tensions with its neighbors.

“Just to clarify, the Constitution prohibits nuclear armaments, not nuclear-powered (vessels). So (the Cheyenne) is nuclear-powered and it has diplomatic clearance from the (Department of Foreign Affairs),” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters yesterday.

She said that if US troops wanted to stop in Subic, they seek permission from the Philippine government and state the reason.

“In this case, it’s a regular ship replenishment… We grant permission if we see that all the documents they submitted to us comply (with the requirements),” Valte said.

Other US submarines have visited Subic in recent months, surfacing amid a standoff between the Philippines and China over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal off Zambales.

The Philippines has brought the dispute before a United Nations arbitral tribunal, seeking a definition of its maritime entitlements under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The Philippines and China are signatories to the UNCLOS.

The US Congress, however, has not ratified the treaty. – Bebot Sison Jr., Aurea Calica