Polaris submarines

The PERT technique was developed in connection with the Navy s crash project to produce the Polaris submarine. It is given much of the credit for the completion of that program 18 months ahead of schedule. In another spectacular success, the turnaround time (the time necessary to shut down, repair, maintain, inspect, and start up the unit) for a methanol unit was cut from 12 to 9 days, with no increase in personnel, by using CPM. This is especially impressive since a similar turnaround had been done annually for 25 years,2 and using the best methods available the turnaround time had never been less than 12 days. 

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... 

Air in holds and living quarters on board ships was studied as early as in 1886 [3]. The advent of nuclear submarines and space vehicles has introduced a new environment where man is sealed in for prolonged periods in a recycled, artificially replenished atmosphere. The incidence of upper respiratory infections in relation to air contamination of Polaris submarines was reported [4]. During a patrol a crew member could inhale unacceptable levels of staphylococci, coliforms and enterococci. 

It has already been noted that PERT was developed to speed up the Polaris project. The Navy was dealing with hundreds of subcontractors, each constructing parts in a different location. These were then sent to an assembly point where the submarine was put together. Until the items arrived there, the activities were essentially independent. This is different from CPM, which was developed mainly for maintenance turnarounds at a given location. Under these conditions, everything was closely interrelated. 

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. 

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 space exploration efforts were paralleled in the United States and the Soviet Union by the development of rocket-powered missiles for strategic military use. Such U.S. systems as the Air Force Minuteman, Peacekeeper, and Small ICBM and the Navy submarine-launched Polaris and Trident are widely deployed. 

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... 

---