A US Navy submarine packed with Tomahawk missiles is at last in the Middle East a month after it was ordered there to deter Iran

• The guided-missile submarine USS Georgia has finally arrived in the Middle East region.
• A Pentagon official confirmed the sub's presence Tuesday, a month after it was sent to the region.
• The Georgia was sent to the Middle East in a move of support for Israel and a show of force to Iran.

A heavily armed US Navy submarine has finally entered the Middle East about a month after being ordered to the region, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

The guided-missile submarine USS Georgia has transited into the US Central Command area of responsibility, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at a briefing.

The Georgia is an Ohio-class vessel armed with over 150 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, bringing a significant amount of firepower to the Middle East.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the Georgia to the Centcom region last month in a signal of support for Israel and a show of force to Iran and its regional proxies.

It's unusual for the US to disclose the movement of its submarines, except in cases where the intention is to send a message to adversaries. The Pentagon has flexed its sub activites to the public on several occasions over the past year.

Austin's orders came amid a broader build-up of US military forces in the Middle East after dual assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders in late July.

Iran and its proxies have blamed Israel for the killings and vowed revenge, sparking fears that any reprisal could plunge the region into even more violence. Hezbollah and Israel traded strikes last month , but Tehran has yet to retaliate directly.

The Georgia was previously operating in the Mediterranean Sea. It now joins a massive amount of US naval firepower in the Centcom region, including two aircraft carriers, multiple destroyers, and dozens of fighter jets and helicopters.

Some of these US naval assets are battling Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who continue to attack merchant shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones.

Earlier this week, for instance, US forces destroyed two Houthi missile systems and one support vehicle in Yemen and one hostile drone over the Red Sea.