Ballistic missile submarines

Redoutable. Fr nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine. Launched in 1967 and due for completion in 1970, it is the first of a class of third-generation nuclear-delivery vehicles planned for the 1970 s. They are patterned on the US Polaris submarine and are intended to carry 16 underwater-launched missiles designated MSBS (Mer-Sol Balistique Strategique) Ref E. Luttwak, A Dictionary of Modern War , Harper Row, NY (1971), 135 163... 

Resolution. Class of Brit nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. Four Resolution class submarines, each equipped with 16 Polaris A3 missiles with multiple (but not MIRV) warheads, form the second generation of Brit strategic offensive forces. The missiles and some other parts are based on US components or designs, but the ship and the missile warheads are locally produced. The main external difference between these and the Polaris type submarines is in the... 

The Navy operates 18 fleet ballistic missile submarines and 56 nuclear attack submarines. Because of the confidential nature of the submarines, no information on the corrosion aspects could be obtained. 

Ballistic Missile Submarine Submarine armed with strategic nuclear-armed missiles often called a boomer by U.S. Navy crews. 

The last military use of submarines is as missile carriers. These submarines, known as ballistic missile submarines, carry a number of long-range ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads and act as a reliably safe deterrent to enemy nuclear attack. Land-based nuclear forces are vulnerable because they are visible and therefore vulnerable to enemy attack, but submarine-based missiles hiding and moving beneath the ocean are virtually untraceable. The first ballistic missile submarine, the USS George Washington, was commissioned into the U.S. Navy in 1959. A number of countries other than the United States also operate ballistic missile submarines. 

Submarine development and construction involves a number of industries. Besides shipbuilding, submarines, especially military ones, require specialized equipment and materials to operate in their harsh underwater environment. Submarines need special hardened steel to survive the crushing depths, sophisticated communications and electronics gear, and modified weapons systems that no other naval vessel uses. None of this is cheap. The standard ballistic missile submarine of the U.S. Navy, the Ohio class, each cost more than 1 billion, and each of their twenty-four Trident D-5 ballistic missiles costs 29 million. The most modem U.S. attack submarine, the Virginia class, costs 1.8 billion. That high cost limits the number of submarines that a navy can acquire. Consequently, only a few countries can afford submarines, especially nuclear-powered ones. 

In mid-1959 the Minister of Defence, Sandys, on the advice of his permanent secretary, Powell, established an independent British Nuclear Deterrent Smdy Group, with representatives of the three services, the Foreign Office and the Treasury, under Powell s chairmanship. The group compared Blue Streak with two American ballistic missiles, the submarine-launched Polaris and the air-launched Skybolt. Rising estimates for the costs of research and development and of underground silos hardened the Treasury s opposition to Blue Streak, and the Chiefs of Staff were in favour of a mobile system. Once President Eisenhower had indicated to Macmillan in March 1960 that Skybolt would be available on satisfactory terms, the Defence Committee took the decision to cancel Blue Streak as a weapons system. The vulnerable Thors were taken out of service by the end of 1963. 

After the war Hercules returned to the production of commercial explosives as well as military propellants and continued to build on its cellulose and naval stores capabilities. In 1958 its explosives department created a chemical propulsion division to develop propellants for missiles and space vehicles. In 1959 it received contracts from the U.S. Air Force to develop new solid-fuel rocket motors and subsequently produced the motor for the third stage of the nation s first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Minuteman. Hercules played an even larger role in the development of the Navy s submarine-launched Polaris ICBM. With cellulose came new specialties, including synthetic resins and paper chemicals, as well as carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), an intermediate used in the production of foods, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. From naval stores came other new specialty chemicals and an effective insecticide, toxaphene, and other agricultural chemicals.3... 

Military Use of Submarines. The technological breakthroughs that led to the modern submarine make it the most lethal naval weapons system available to any nation that can afford it. As military craft, submarines fulfill three functions defending shores, attacking enemy ships and submarines in the open ocean, and launching ballistic missiles. 

Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore, Cold War Submarines (2003). 2,500 tonnes displacement for a patrol submarine at the end of the Second World War 33,000 tonnes for the very biggest ballistic missile launchers today. 

Arms sales, which could include the Russian SSN-22 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, the SU-30 fighter, and Typhoon class nuclear ballistic submarines. 

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