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For the second time in three months Bill  Gertz at The  Washington Free Beacon claims to have sources confirming a Russian nuclear  submarine was sailing near the U.S. coast.

Gertz is a renowned Washington defense insider and says the most recent  spotting of a Russian Sierra-2 class submarine, believed to be with Russia’s  Northern Fleet, happened as Hurricane Sandy swept up the East Coast.

This would be the first time a Sierra-2 class attack submarine has been  detected near a U.S. coastline and if the report is true, shows Russia is  determined to regain its naval projection power.

The Russian vessel is said to have been conducting anti-submarine exercises  near the U.S. submarine base Kings  Bay in Georgia, but did not threaten a nearby U.S. aircraft carrier strike  group.

From The Washington  Free Beacon:

Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, north of  Jacksonville, Fla., is homeport for two guided missile submarines and six  nuclear missile submarines. The submarines are known to be a target of Russian  attack submarines. Meanwhile, the officials also said that a Russian  electronic intelligence-gathering vessel was granted safe harbor in the  commercial port of Jacksonville, Fla., within listening range of Kings Bay.

The Russian AGI ship, or Auxiliary-General  Intelligence, was allowed to stay in the port to avoid the superstorm that  battered the U.S. East Coast last week. A Jacksonville Port Authority  spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the Russian AGI at the port.

The last of its class, the titanium hulled Sierra’s were advanced at the time  of their launch in 1992, moreso than Western designs, but they were expensive  and very few were produced. This would be only one  of two active Sierra-2 subs still in active service, both with Russia’s  Northern Fleet.

The Sierra carries two types of anti-submarine and torpedoes that it can  replace with 42 naval mines.

The Beacon reported in August that an Akula class Russian submarine sailed  into the Gulf of Mexico. That story was widely circulated as proof of  Obama’s failure to reset Russian relations, and illustrate the crippling nature  of looming U.S. defense cuts.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert wrote  of that incident to Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas)  saying “based on all of the source information available to us,  a Russian submarine did not enter the Gulf of Mexico.”

The Washington Free Beacon is a nonprofit publication funded  by the Center for American Freedom, which  was profiled earlier this year as the conservative counterweight to the  Center for American Progress by Politico’s Ben  Smith.