“That’s the only one you know about. Guaranteed there’s another 4-5 boomers in the Gulf.”
Having been involved in supplying equipment to the NSA, the Navy, NASA and other agencies I have a pretty good idea of the capabilities the military has for tracking. If the Navy loses track of a Russian or Chinese sub, even a diesel boat, they will move heaven and Earth to relocate it. When Russian or Chinese boats go on patrol, they are likely to be shadowed. Also, we have underwater listening posts all over the world. Several decades ago, when the USS Scorpion was lost, they found it by correlating data from equipment thousands of miles away from the sinking’s location. That was 1968. If there are subs in the Gulf, the Navy knows exactly where they are. It would be foolish to send a missile boat into a cul-de-sac when the missiles it carries have a range of thousands of miles. While there are lots of things to worry about, this isn’t one of them.
A friend who is an ex-sonarman told me that the sonar sensors in the North Sea (by the UK) could detect a Soviet Alfa sub leaving harbor in Vladivostok. Our sonar capabilities make Russian or Chinese ones a laughingstock.