US Submarine Earns Highest Military Honor for Spying on America’s Enemies

A United States nuclear-powered submarine was presented with the highest military unit award for obtaining “sensitive and unique” intelligence during a European deployment.
The USS Washington, a conventionally armed 7,900-ton Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for “outstanding performance in action while conducting operations within U.S. Sixth Fleet” during its recent six-month deployment.
The PUC, the highest unit award in the Pentagon, is presented to any U.S. military unit that has distinguished itself by “outstanding performance and heroism in action against enemy forces,” the Submarine Force Atlantic said in a news release on Friday.
“The PUC is indeed a fairly rare unit award and a significant honor,” Tom Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submarine commanding officer and an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Newsweek.
The Sixth Fleet is one of the U.S. Navy’s numbered fleets and operates as part of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, which has an area of responsibility covering all of Russia and Europe, including the Arctic Ocean and nearly the entire African continent.
During the deployment in December last year, the submarine, which can carry 12 land-attack cruise missiles and 25 torpedoes, completed three demanding national security missions by getting sensitive and unique intelligence information.
The honor, presented on behalf of President Joe Biden on July 19, signified “the crew’s exceptional dedication and strategic impact” as they worked in “challenging, high risk environments” to complete vital national-level missions, the news release added.
The Submarine Force Atlantic told Newsweek that it could not provide any more information on the deployment due to its sensitive nature. It was unclear whether the submarine’s missions were related to Russia’s undersea warfare capability.
The U.S. military has warned about the growing presence of the Russian military nuclear-powered submarines off the U.S. coasts, characterizing Russia as the “primary threat” as its submarines carry a significant number of cruise missiles to threaten the U.S. homeland.
Increased Russian submarine activity in the northern Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean was a “stark reminder” that the threat posed by Russia to the U.S.-led NATO was not limited to Ukraine and Eastern Europe, an expert explained to Newsweek previously.
Citing a publicly available document, Shugart said the U.S. submarine forces used undersea concealment to provide unique intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance in support of national interests in contests that “characterize today’s unstable international environment.”
Bryan Herrin, a former U.S. Navy submariner, told Newsweek that the PUC has almost exclusively been awarded during wartime or active campaigns such as the Global War on Terror, which makes giving the award to the Washington “extremely interesting.”
“The PUC criteria language would indicate an extraordinary mission or event,” he added.
The USS Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class nuclear-powered, conventionally armed fast-attack submarine, received the PUC for its 2013 performance.
The Washington was also awarded the newly created Arctic Service Medal for its “exceptional service and dedication during operations in the strategic Arctic region.”
The U.S. Navy has a vital role in preventing competitors from disrupting emerging sea lines of communication in the Arctic region, said Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations. “We must be able to operate in the Arctic to protect our homeland.”
According to the Navy, the Arctic Medal is awarded to service members assigned to a unit that conducted an ice-covered strait transit or a transit of the North Pole.
It is also presented with those assigned to a submarine that executed vertical surfacing through ice or conducted at least seven days of military operations under the ice, as well as those assigned to an ice camp or an operations center set up on an ice floe.
In its most recent Arctic Strategy, the Pentagon warned that Russia was upgrading its military capabilities while China was seeking to get involved in Arctic governance. It called for increased military presence, intelligence capabilities, and cooperation with allies.
On September 27, the Washington arrived at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine for maintenance and upgrades. The submarine began construction in September 2011 and was put into service in October 2017. It is homeported at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.