YOKOSUKA, Japan -- Port visits by nuclear-powered submarines are never announced beforehand. Neither is the duration of the stay or the planned date of departure. They just quietly surface without warning, as the U.S. Navy's Ohio-class guided-missile submarine (SSGN) USS Michigan did this week here in Yokosuka, home to the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet.
Once these submarines submerge, they are nearly impossible to track. "We make our own fresh water, we make our own oxygen. The only thing that limits our sustainability is food," the ship's commanding officer, Captain Joe Turk, told reporters Friday on a rare media tour of the ship. "We carry 90 to 100 days' worth of food."
