Submarine-launched ballistic missile
Submarine-launched ballistic missiles or SLBMs are ballistic missiles delivering nuclear weapons that are launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) each of which carries a warhead and allows a single launched missile to strike a handful of targets.
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Description
As early as 1934, H. G. Wells predicted, in his The Shape of Things to Come, the use of submarines carrying "long-range air torpedos with directional apparatus". Though he envisaged these as carrying a chemical rather than nuclear warheads, he grasped the far-reaching strategic implications: "The smallest of these raiders carried enough of such stuff to 'prepare' about eight hundred square miles of territory; it could have turned London or New York into a cityful of distorted corpses. These vessels made London vulnerable from Japan, Tokyo vulnerable from Dublin; they abolished the last corners of safety in the world."
The first successful tests of a submarine-based launch platform were by German U-boats in World War II using a submarine towed launch platform. These and other early SLBM systems required vessels to be surfaced when they fired missiles, but after World War 2, launch systems were quickly adapted to allow underwater launching. In September of 1955, the Soviet Union was the first country in the world to launch a ballistic missile from a submarine.
Ballistic missile submarines have been of great strategic importance for the USA and Russia since the Cold War, as they can hide from reconnaissance satellites and fire their nuclear weapons without much warning, even close to the opponent's coast.
Numerous international press reports since the middle 1990s attribute to Israel a policy of mounting missiles with nuclear warheads on the submarines it obtained from Germany, for use especially in the event of Iran developing nuclear arms of its own. The government of Israel persistently denies all such reports, though they will neither confirm nor deny whether they have nuclear weapons.
Types of SLBMs
Specific types of SLBMs include:
- India
- Sagarika (under development)
- French:
- US and UK:
- Soviet Union/Russia:
- People's Republic of China:
- JL-1 and JL-2
Types of SSBNs
Specific types of ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) include:
- Benjamin Franklin class submarine - former, US
- Triomphant class submarine - current, France
- Ohio class submarine - current, US
- Resolution class submarine - former, UK
- Vanguard class submarine - current, UK
- List of NATO reporting names for ballistic missile submarines - current and former, Russia
- Xia class submarine - current, China
See also
- ICBM
- nuclear navy
- nuclear warfare
- nuclear strategy
- submarine
- submarine-launched missile
- Strategic triad
- vertical launching system
External links
Air-to-air missile (AAM) • Air-to-surface missile (ASM) • Surface-to-air missile (SAM) • Surface-to-surface missile (SSM) • Ballistic missile • Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) • Submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) • Anti-ballistic missile (ABM) • Cruise missile • Anti-ship missile (AShM) • Anti-submarine Rocket (ASROC) • Anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) • Anti-satellite weapon (ASAT)
List of missiles
Guidance types
Anti-radiation missile • Wire-guided missile • Infrared guidance • Beam riding • Laser guidance • Active radar guidance • Semi-active radar guidance
Categories
Submarine-launched ballistic missiles | Missile types