The Ohio class is a class of nuclear-powered submarines that is considered to be one of
the most lethal platforms in the world. The US navy has 18 Ohio-class submarines: 14 ballistic
missile submarines (SSBN) and 4 that were later converted to guided missile submarines (SSGN).
In this video, Defense Updates examine why even one of the 14 Ohio ballistic missile
submarines is enough for North Korea?
Lets get started.
The Ohio-class boats entered service in the 1980s as a replacement for 5 different classes
of fleet ballistic-missile submarines
Ohio class was created to be the ultimate nuclear deterrence.
The logic of nuclear deterrence is like this, while a first strike might wipe out a country’s
land-based missiles and nuclear bombers, it’s very difficult to track a ballistic-missile
submarine patrolling quietly in the depths of the ocean—and there’s little hope of
taking them all out in a first strike.
Thus, ballistic-missile submarines promise the unstoppable hand of nuclear retribution—and
should deter any sane adversary from attempting a first strike or resorting to nuclear weaponsat all.
The end of the Cold War, and especially the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, resulted
in the downsizing of U.S. nuclear forces. However, rather than retiring some of the
oldest boats as originally planned, the Navy decided to refit 4 of the 18 Ohio-class subs
to serve as cruise missile carriers to launch conventional non nuclear attacks against ground
and sea targets—starting with the USS Ohio.
The Ohio-class submarines are the largest submarines ever built for the U S Navy having
a displacement of 16764 tons. These have length of 560 ft (170 m).
It has a speed of around 20 to 25 knots. Being nuclear powered it has unlimited range and
endurance, limited only by food supplies.
Each Ohio-class submarine has two crews of 154 officers and enlisted personnel, designated
Gold and Blue, who take turns departing on patrols that last an average of 70 to 90 days
underwater—with the longest on record being 140 days by the USS Pennsylvania. An average
of a month is spent between patrols, with resupply facilitated by 3 large-diameter supply hatches.
The 14 Ballistic Missile Submarines of Ohio class together carry approximately 50% of
the total US active inventory of strategic thermonuclear warheads.
The first 8 Ohio-class boats were originally built to launch the Trident I C4 ballistic
missile—an advanced version of the earlier Poseidon SLBM. However, by now all of these
are armed with the superior Trident II D5 ballistic missile, which has 50 % greater
range and is capable of very accurate strikes, which could enable them to precisely target
military installations as a first-strike weapon.
Trident II D5 has a range of 11000 km and Ohio class ballistic missile submarines carries
24 of these.
As a Trident II D5 reenters the atmosphere at speeds of up to Mach 24, it splits into
up to 8 independent reentry vehicles, each with a 100- or 475-kiloton nuclear warhead.
In short, a full salvo from an Ohio-class submarine—which can be launched in less
than one minute—could unleash up to 24 multiple 8 i.e. 192 nuclear warheads.
This is enough to destroy the whole nation.
Ohio-class submarines also come armed with four 21-inch tubes that can launch Mark 48 torpedoes.
Mark 48 torpedo has a similar range of 50 km. it has 650 lb (290 kg) high explosive warhead.
Mk-48 torpedoes can be guided from a submarine by wires attached to the torpedo. They can
also use their own active or passive sensors to execute programmed target search, acquisition,
and attack procedures. The torpedo is designed to detonate under the keel of a surface ship,
breaking the keel and destroying its structural integrity. In the event of a miss, it can
circle back for another attempt.
However, these are intended primarily for self-defense—a ballistic missile submarine’s
job isn’t to hunt enemy ships and submarines, but to lie as low and quiet as possible to
deny rivals any means of tracking their movements.
The surface search, navigation and fire control
radar is BPS 15A I/J-band radar. The sonar suite includes: IBM BQQ 6 passive search sonar,
Raytheon BQS 13, BQS 15 active and passive high-frequency sonar, BQR 15 passive towed
array from Western Electric, and the active BQR 19 navigation sonar from Raytheon. Kollmorgen
Type 152 and Type 82 periscopes are fitted.
The Ohio submarines are also being upgraded with the Lockheed Martin AN/BQQ-10(V4) sonar
processing system under the acoustic-rapid commercial-off-the-shelf insertion (A-RCI) program.
These sensors enable the OHIO class to detect enemy vessels from far off.