British Royal Navy attack submarines are tasked with monitoring Russian submarine movements in the North Atlantic and serve as one of the first lines of Russian deterrence that profoundly benefits the United States. Such monitoring is especially critical to U.S. national security because Russia boasts a robust submarine force that has exercised heightened submarine activity in the region and beyond. Russian submarines have been identified in the past year near Portugal, the Irish Sea, the North Sea, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the United States.
However, the waves of crisis are cresting for a naval force once unequivocally considered the most powerful in the world. For nearly 100 days this year, none of the British Royal Navy’s attack submarines were deployed to conduct naval operations. Altogether, only nine of 25 total warships and attack submarines remain…
