Why does America have a submarine base in Scotland?

Question

Why does the US Navy have a submarine base on the Holy Loch in Argyleshire, Scotland. When the Cold War is supposedly over I would have thought the base would have been mothballed years ago. Also is it true that the Submarine base is a nuclear base?

EDIT: MIKE T It doesn't really bother me that the US Navy has base in Scotland I am not one of those tree huggers I just wondered why the US has a base in Scotland.

EDIT: Sorry wrong name that should have been Matt not Mike

Answer 1

For the longest time the United States Navy had a fleet of Polaris Missile carrying submarines at Holy Loch...as a deterrent against the Soviet missile threat...but the United States Navy (as of late 1991/early 1992) no longer has a naval presence in Holy Loch.

Answer 2

The US Navy No longer has a Submarine base at Holy Loch.
It was Close and returned to the Local Authorities in 1992.

It was a Nuclear Sub base.

Answer 3

I worked at the Royal Navy base in Faslane for ages, and never once heard anything about a US base in Scotland. Where sis you hear this information from? The submarines the royal navy keep in Scotland carry nuclear weapons, though.

Answer 4

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi is a patsy....I agree with Michael and Hypocrite,to be honest. The so called star witness,the Maltese shopkeeper,was reportedly paid $2million dollars by the American government in return for his testimony,and changed his mind several times,as to the mans description,as Hypocrite says,he was also exposed to a photograph of Al Megrahi before the trial too. Of course,now he has agreed to drop his appeal,the people of Lockerbie,and the victims families will never know the real truth of what happened. As for Hilary Clinton...who cares? She can't even give her husband a decent bl*w job. Pffft...

Answer 5

from a Submariner:

we used to:

http://www.tendertale.com/ttd/ttd17/ttd17.html

It was used as a ballistic missile submarine base due to the Cold War, and the fact that our missile boats early on had nuke missiles with a very short range, but after the Ohio Class missile boats came in line in the 1980's with the Trident I and Trident II nuke missiles, which can hit anywhere on the planet from anywhere at the time the base was no longer needed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_class_submarine

Answer 6

never heard of a US base in Scotland i know they have a small naval base on the outskirts of london and a few USAF bases scattered around England. The US are expanding into many more countries esp in eastern Europe.... EDIT: wow i learn something new everyday...... never knew there was a base there!!

Answer 7

well any nuke info is most likely only speculative since the gov't rarely releases that type of info, but most subs are nuke powered, if not carrying nukes. also, the US is in most of western european countries, such as england, germany, italy, etc. and has plans to expand to eastern europe, especially poland and romania. the UK has a democratic gov't which allows the US to do this as a strategic partnership. if you do not like it, start a movement and elect people that will ask the US to leave. it isn't like scotland is being forced into this. most countries carry some of the cost of maintaining the military presence there

Answer 8

Why does America have bases everywhere? Because of the Soviets after World War II.

Answer 9

The only thing submarines are used for by our Military today are carrying and launching if need be Nuclear Arms. If we want to sink a ship we just bomb it from the air.

Answer 10

Whether that's true or not, we have the best, most expansive, most high-tech, far reaching, and dominant military in the history of the planet.