The U.S. Navy has officially confirmed that it carried out a test of a Trident D5 submarine-launched
ballistic missile over the Atlantic Ocean on February 9th, 2021.
An Ohio class ballistic missile submarine, or SSBN, fired the weapon from within the
service's Eastern Range off the coast of Florida. As per reports, the missile did not have
any live nuclear warheads.
The U.S. Navy did not name the particular submarine that fired the missile.
This is thought to be a system evaluation test.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes why Trident D-5 missile armed Ohio class submarines
are the most potent platform of the U.S military ?
Let's get in the details.
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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).
The Ohio-class boats entered service in the 1980s as a replacement for 5 different classes
of 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 it is almost impossible to
take them all out in a first strike.
So, ballistic-missile submarines deter any enemy from launching a preemptive first strike.
The Ohio-class submarines are the largest submarines ever built for the U.S Navy having
a displacement of 16764 tons. These have a length of 560 ft (170 m) and have 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 the 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 submarines of this class have multiple sensors.
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.
Ohio-class submarines also come armed with four 21-inch tubes that can launch Mark 48
torpedoes.
Mark 48 torpedo has a range of 50 km or 31 miles. it has 650 lb (290 kg) high explosive
warhead.
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 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.
Trident II was designed to be more advanced than its predecessor Trident I.
Trident II is put into service in 1990, it has a greater range and payload capacity compared
to Trident I. The missile is 13.579 m in length, 2.11 m
in diameter and weighs in at 58.5 tonnes. It is a three-stage rocket, each stage containing
a solid-fuel rocket motor. It is thought to have an accuracy of 90 m CEP
Trident II has a range of 11000 km or 6835 miles and Ohio class ballistic missile submarines
carries 24 of these. Trident II is a Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV)
missile
Each Trident II can carry up to 14 W88 (475 kt) warheads or 14 W76 (100 kt) warheads.
To give the viewer a perspective, Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield
of 15 kt of TNT and Fat Man atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki had a yield of
21 kt of TNT.
New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) between the United States and the Russian
Federation agreed on having only 8 warheads per missile, so currently, each Trident II
are armed with 8 warheads.
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 obliterate huge landmass.
The 14 Ballistic Missile Submarines of Ohio class together carry approximately 50% of
the total US active inventory of strategic thermonuclear warheads.
A credible, effective nuclear deterrent is essential to the national security of the
U.S. Not only this, U.S is also, directly and indirectly,
responsible for the security of many nations including NATO members.
Ballistic Missile submarines are the cornerstone of America’s nuclear posturing and will
remain so for foreseeable future.
The Trident II SLBM deployed in Ohio class subs is the most survivable part of America’s
nuclear deterrent and allows great operational flexibility.
In this situation, it is paramount that the U.S regularly validates these missiles. This
is especially true when we consider the fact that the missiles went through the life extension
program.
This demonstrates the solid reliability of Trident II missile and Ohia class submarines
as a platform. The firepower ensures that no adversary will
dare to use nukes against the U.S.