November30, 2006: American nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) have proved so useful for intelligence work, that more of them are being transferred to the Pacific. The SSNs have been particularly useful in Southeast Asia, where Islamic terrorists have been moving between the thousands of islands comprising Indonesia and the Philippines, and often operate from remote bases on some of these islands. The SSNs, because they can sit, unobserved, for weeks, or months, in one spot, using their underwater sensors, as well as some attached to the periscope mast, to observe and record this activity ( movements and electronic transmissions). The Pacific fleet is also getting the new SSGN (an SSBN converted to carry 154 cruise missiles, and a hundred or more SEAL commandos). The SSGNs will, like the SSBNs, have two crews, so that the boats can be kept at sea for the maximum amount of time (every 90 days, the SSGN comes into port to change crews). Commandos can also be carried aboard the SSNs, but the SSGN boats have additional facilities for the SEALs to plan, exercise, and train for missions.

The SSNs can also stalk merchant ships on the high seas, and collect all sort of useful information on terrorist operations, or countries like North Korea trying to ship weapons or illegal drugs. Submarines, especially SSNs, were designed to stalk, and the war on terrorists requires a lot of that.