And A Submarine Shall Lead Them

Once again, we see a "group photo" from a big naval exercise where the submarine is front and center. This one is from the current "Invincible Spirit" exercises off the coast of Korea, with USS Tucson (SSN 770) leading the fleet:

Here's a close up of Tucson from the same event. I've blogged before about why submarines are almost always in front of the formation in these group steaming photos, or more rarely off to the side -- it's because submarines have absolutely no tradition of station-keeping in formation steaming, so it's easiest just to let the sub be the guide. In the description of the picture above, the Navy Mass Communication Specialist who wrote the caption made the common mistake of calling the submarine "USS Tuscon" (I've blogged about that before as well). I think we can all just agree that the spelling and pronunciation of "Tucson" bear no relation to one another, and leave it at that.

For those wondering about the RIMPAC 2010 group photo, here's a video of the parade, with USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) leading the way. They claim there are four submarines in this formation, but they must be way out of the way. (Here's a still picture of the formation, and even in hi-res I don't see any submarines.)