Submarine-launched ballistic missile: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2013}}

[[File:Trident missile launch.jpg|thumb|A [[UGM-96 Trident I]] clears the water after launch from a US Navy submarine in 1984]]

A '''submarine-launched ballistic missile''' ('''SLBM''') is a [[ballistic missile]] capable of being launched from [[Ballistic missile submarine|submarine]]s. Modern variants usually deliver [[multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle]]s (MIRVs) each of which carries a [[thermonuclear weapon|nuclear]] [[warhead]] and allows a single launched missile to strike several targets. Submarine-launched ballistic missiles operate in a different way from [[submarine-launched cruise missile]]s.

Modern submarine-launched ballistic missiles are closely related to [[intercontinental ballistic missiles]], with ranges of over {{convert|5500|km|nmi}}, and in many cases SLBMs and ICBMs may be part of the same family of weapons.

The first practical design of a [[submarine]]-based launch platform was developed by the Germans near the end of [[World War II]] involving a launch tube which contained a [[V-2 rocket|V-2 ballistic missile]] variant and was towed behind a submarine, known by the code-name [[V-2 rocket#Unfulfilled plans|''Prüfstand XII'']]. The war ended before it could be tested, but the engineers who had worked on it were taken to work for the United States ([[Operation Paperclip]]) and for the Soviet Union on their SLBM programs. These and other early SLBM systems required vessels to be surfaced when they fired missiles, but launch systems eventually were adapted to allow [[underwater]] launching in the 1950-1960s. A converted [[Project 611]] (Zulu-IV class) [[submarine]] launched the world's first SLBM, an [[R-11FM]] (SS-N-1 Scud-A, naval variant of the SS-1 [[Scud]]) on 16 September 1955.<ref name="Wade R-11">{{cite web |url=http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/r11.htm |title=R-11 |access-date=23 April 2011 |last=Wade |first=Mark |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Astronautica]]}}</ref> Five additional Project V611 and AV611 (Zulu-V class) [[Submarine]]s became the world's first operational [[ballistic missile]] submarines (SSBs) with two R-11FM missiles each, entering service in 1956–57.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://russianships.info/eng/submarines/project_611.htm|title=Large submarines - Project 611|website=russianships.info}}</ref>

The [[United States Navy]] initially worked on a sea-based variant of the [[US Army]] [[PGM-19 Jupiter|Jupiter]] [[intermediate-range ballistic missile]], projecting four of the large, liquid-fueled missiles per [[submarine]].<ref name="Friedman, pp. 192–195">Friedman, pp. 192–195</ref> Rear Admiral [[William Raborn|W. F. "Red" Raborn]] headed a Special Project Office to develop Jupiter for the Navy, beginning in late 1955.<ref name="Friedman, pp. 192–195"/><ref name="heroicrelics.org"/> However, at the [[Project Nobska]] submarine warfare conference in 1956, physicist [[Edward Teller]] stated that a physically small one-megaton [[warhead]] could be produced for the relatively small, solid-fueled [[Polaris missile]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Teller | first = Edward | title = Memoirs: A Twentieth Century Journey in Science and Politics | publisher = Perseus Publishing | year = 2001 | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | pages = [https://archive.org/details/memoirstwentieth0000tell/page/420 420–421] | url = https://archive.org/details/memoirstwentieth0000tell/page/420 | isbn = 0-7382-0532-X | url-access = registration }}</ref> and this prompted the Navy to leave the Jupiter program in December of that year. Soon [[Chief of Naval Operations]] Admiral [[Arleigh Burke]] concentrated all Navy strategic research on [[UGM-27 Polaris|Polaris]], still under Admiral Raborn's Special Project Office.<ref name="heroicrelics.org">{{cite web|url=http://heroicrelics.org/info/jupiter/jupiter-hist.html|title=History of the Jupiter Missile System|website=heroicrelics.org}}</ref> All US SLBMs have been solid-fueled while all [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] and Russian SLBMs have been liquid-fueled except for the Russian [[RSM-56 Bulava]], which entered service in 2014.

The world's first operational nuclear-powered [[ballistic missile submarine]] (SSBN) was {{USS|George Washington|SSBN-598}} with 16 [[Polaris missile|Polaris A-1]] missiles, which entered service in December 1959 and conducted the first SSBN deterrent patrol November 1960 – January 1961.<ref>Friedman, p. 196</ref> ''George Washington'' also conducted the first successful submerged SLBM launch with a Polaris A-1 on 20 July 1960.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1963/1963%20-%201949.html |title=Missiles 1963 |journal=[[Flight International]] |date=7 November 1963 |page=752}}</ref> Forty days later, the Soviet Union made its first successful underwater launch of a submarine ballistic missile in the White Sea, on 10 September 1960 from the same converted [[Project 611]] ([[NATO reporting name]] Zulu-IV class) submarine that first launched the R-11FM.<ref name=NiZ>{{cite web |url=http://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/10079/ |title=Start razreshaju (in Russian) |access-date=23 April 2011 |last=Dygalo|first=V.A. |publisher=[[Nauka i Zhizn']]}}</ref> The Soviets were only a year behind the US with their first SSBN, the [[Soviet submarine K-19|ill-fated K-19]] of [[Hotel-class submarine|Project 658]] (Hotel class), commissioned in November 1960. However, the Hotel class carried only three [[R-13 (missile)|R-13 missiles]] (NATO reporting name SS-N-4) each and had to surface and raise the missile to launch.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://russianships.info/eng/submarines/project_658.htm|title=Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - Project 658|website=russianships.info}}</ref> Submerged launch was not an operational capability for the Soviets until 1963, when the [[R-21 (missile)|R-21 missile]] (SS-N-5) was first backfitted to Project 658 (Hotel class) and [[Golf-class submarine|Project 629]] (Golf class) submarines.<ref name="Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 355–357">Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 355–357</ref> The Soviet Union was able to beat the U.S. in launching and testing the first SLBM with a live nuclear warhead, an [[R-13 (missile)|R-13]] that detonated in the [[Novaya Zemlya]] Test Range in the Arctic Ocean, doing so on 20 October 1961,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Polmar, Norman |author2=White, Michael |title=Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=2010 |page=21 |isbn=978-1-59114-690-2}}</ref> just ten days before the gigantic 50&nbsp;Mt [[Tsar Bomba]]'s detonation in the same general area. The United States eventually conducted a similar test in the Pacific Ocean on 6 May 1962, with a Polaris A-2 launched from {{USS|Ethan Allen|SSBN-608}} as part of the [[nuclear test]] series [[Operation Dominic]]. The first Soviet SSBN with 16 missiles was the [[Yankee-class submarine|Project 667A]] (Yankee class), which first entered service in 1967 with 32 boats completed by 1974.<ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 403</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://russianships.info/eng/submarines/project_667a.htm|title=Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - Project 667A|website=russianships.info}}</ref> By the time the first Yankee was commissioned the US had built 41 SSBNs, nicknamed the "[[41 for Freedom]]".<ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 610–613</ref><ref name="Polmar American Submarine, p. 133">Polmar American Submarine, p. 133</ref>

The short range of the early SLBMs dictated basing and deployment locations. By the late 1960s the Polaris A-3 was deployed on all US SSBNs with a range of {{convert|4600|km|nmi}}, a great improvement on the {{convert|1900|km|nmi}} range of Polaris A-1.  The A-3 also had three warheads that landed in a pattern around a single target.<ref>Friedman, pp. 199–200</ref><ref>Polmar American Submarine, pp. 131–133</ref> The Yankee class was initially equipped with the [[R-27 Zyb]] missile (SS-N-6) with a range of {{convert|2400|km|nmi}}. The US was much more fortunate in its basing arrangements than the Soviets. Thanks to [[NATO]] and the US possession of [[Guam]], US SSBNs were permanently forward deployed at Advanced Refit Sites in [[Holy Loch]], Scotland, [[Naval Station Rota|Rota, Spain]], and Guam by the middle 1960s, resulting in short transit times to patrol areas near the Soviet Union. The SSBN facilities at the Advanced Refit Sites were austere, with only a [[submarine tender]] and [[floating dry dock]]. Converted merchant ships [[hull classification symbol|designated T-AKs]] ([[Military Sealift Command]] cargo ships) were provided to ferry missiles and supplies to the sites. With two rotating crews per boat, about one-third of the total US force could be in a patrol area at any time. The Soviet bases, in the [[Murmansk]] area for the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] and the [[Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky]] area for the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]], required their SSBNs to make a long transit (through NATO-monitored waters in the Atlantic) to their mid-ocean patrol areas to hold the continental United States ([[CONUS]]) at risk. This resulted in only a small percentage of the Soviet force occupying patrol areas at any time, and was a great motivation for longer-range Soviet SLBMs, which would allow them to patrol close to their bases, in areas sometimes referred to as "deep bastions". These missiles were the [[R-29 Vysota]] series (SS-N-8, SS-N-18, SS-N-23), equipped on [[Delta-class submarine|Projects 667B, 667BD, 667BDR, and 667BDRM]] (Delta-I through Delta-IV classes).<ref name="Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 355–357"/> The SS-N-8, with a range of {{convert|7700|km|nmi}}, entered service on the first Delta-I boat in 1972, before the Yankee class was even completed. A total of 43 Delta-class boats of all types entered service 1972–90, with the SS-N-18 on the Delta III class and the [[R-29RM Shtil]] (SS-N-23) on the Delta IV class.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://russianships.info/eng/submarines/project_667b.htm|title=Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - Project 667B|website=russianships.info}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://russianships.info/eng/submarines/project_667bd.htm|title=Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - Project 667BD|website=russianships.info}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://russianships.info/eng/submarines/project_667bdr.htm|title=Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - Project 667BDR|website=russianships.info}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://russianships.info/eng/submarines/project_667bdrm.htm|title=Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - Project 667BDRM|website=russianships.info}}</ref> The new missiles had increased range and eventually multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles ([[MIRV]]), multiple warheads that could each hit a different target.<ref name="Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 355–357"/>

Both the United States and the Soviet Union commissioned larger SSBNs designed for new missiles in 1981. The American large SSBN was the [[Ohio-class submarine|''Ohio'' class]], also called the "Trident submarine", with the largest SSBN armament ever of 24 missiles, initially Trident I but built with much larger tubes for the [[UGM-133 Trident II|Trident II (D-5) missile]], which entered service in 1990.<ref>Friedman, pp. 206–207</ref><ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 554</ref> The entire class was converted to use Trident II by the early 2000s. Trident II offered a range of over {{convert|8000|km|nmi}} with eight larger MIRV warheads than Trident I. When the {{USS|Ohio|SSBN-726}} commenced sea trials in 1980, two of the first ten US SSBNs had their missiles removed to comply with SALT treaty requirements; the remaining eight were converted to attack submarines (SSN) by the end of 1982. These were all in the Pacific, and the Guam SSBN base was disestablished; the first several ''Ohio''-class boats used new Trident facilities at [[Naval Submarine Base Bangor]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]]. Eighteen ''Ohio''-class boats were commissioned by 1997,<ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 613</ref> four of which were converted as cruise missile submarines (SSGN) in the 2000s to comply with [[START I]] treaty requirements. The Soviet large SSBN was the [[Typhoon-class submarine|Project 941 Akula]], famous as the Typhoon-class (and not to be confused with the [[Akula-class submarine|Project 971 Shchuka]] [[attack submarine]], called "Akula" by NATO). The Typhoons were the largest submarines ever built at 48,000 tons submerged. They were armed with 20 of the new [[R-39 Rif]] (SS-N-20) missiles with a range of {{convert|8300|km|nmi}} and 10 MIRV warheads. Six Typhoons were commissioned 1981–89.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://russianships.info/eng/submarines/project_941.htm|title=Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - Project 941|website=russianships.info}}</ref>

|[[R-13 (missile)|R-13]] || SS-N-4 || || 600 || {{flagicon image|Flag of Russia.svg}} [[Russia and weapons of mass destruction|Soviet Union/Russia]] || Decommissioned

|[[SS-N-5|R-21]] || SS-N-5 || || 1,650 || {{flagicon image|Flag of Russia.svg}} [[Russia and weapons of mass destruction|Soviet Union/Russia]] || Decommissioned

|[[SS-N-6|R-27 Zyb]] || SS-N-6 || 2,400 || 3,000 || {{flagicon image|Flag of Russia.svg}} [[Russia and weapons of mass destruction|Soviet Union/Russia]] || Decommissioned

|[[JL-3]] || || || 11,900 || {{flagicon image|Flag of China.svg}} [[China and weapons of mass destruction|China]] || Being tested<ref>{{cite web|url=https://udn.com/news/story/7331/2629623|title=詹氏：大陸將試驗巨浪3飛彈 採用東風41技術|publisher=联合早报网|access-date=2017-08-08}}</ref>               

|[[K-4 (SLBM)|K-4]] || || || 3,500 || {{flagicon image|Flag of India.svg}} [[India and weapons of mass destruction|India]] || Ready to enter serial production<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-successfully-test-fires-k-4-submarine-launched-missile/articleshow/73589861.cms|title=DRDO: Arihant's N-capable missile 'ready to roll' {{!}} India News - Times of India|last=P|first=Rajat|last2=Jan 25|first2=it {{!}} TNN {{!}} Updated|website=The Times of India|language=en|access-date=2020-01-28|last3=2020|last4=Ist|first4=4:21}}</ref>  

|Being tested<ref>{{Cite web|title=PS-1 mod|url=http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets/Specials/Pukguksong-1mod_SLBM/index.htm|access-date=2021-10-21|website=www.b14643.de}}</ref>

| rowspan="2" |Dubious, neither model appears real as both models lack a separation shroud and the Pukguksong-4 was escorted by the [[Korean People's Army Ground Force|KPA Ground Force]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pukguksong-4 and -5|url=http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets/Specials/Pukguksong-4and5_GLBM/index.htm|access-date=2021-10-21|website=www.b14643.de}}</ref>

|Being tested<ref>{{Cite web|last=Si-young|first=Choi|date=2021-09-07|title=South Korea tests first SLBM|url=http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210907000950|access-date=2021-09-15|website=The Korea Herald|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lendon|first=Brad|last2=Kwon|first2=Jake|last3=Bae|first3=Gawon|last4=Seo|first4=Yoonjung|date=15 September 2021|title=Both North and South Korea fire ballistic missiles as tensions rise on peninsula|url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/15/asia/north-korea-missiles-intl-hnk/index.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-15|website=CNN}}</ref>

*[http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/r11.htm R-11 SLBM]