Dinesh Maharajh passes along the following bit of intel. Thanks Dinesh.
US submarine docks in Chaguaramas, Monday, July 23, 2007 --
The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Albuquerque (SSN-706) sailed into the Chaguaramas port yesterday for a "liberty call" to Trinidad and Tobago. It is a Los Angeles class sub and its crew, of 12 officers and 115 enlisted men, will be engaged not in war, but to paint the Rainbow Rescue shelter at Belmont.
The submarine, which carries Tomahawk cruise missiles which were used with resounding success in the first Gulf War in 1991 was part of a larger group called the USS Theodore Roosevelt battle group in 1999. It was while participating in a six-month Mediterranean tour, the submarine fired a total of ten Tomahawks into Serb-controlled Yugoslavia.
The LA class submarine was developed during the Cold War era as a hunter to counter the threat posed by the then Soviet Union's own attack submarine. The Soviet attack strength lay in its numbers. The Americans depended on technological superiority and although the USS Albuquerque is a 25-year-old submarine, it has been outfitted to meet the demand of the increasingly non-conventional battlefields.