The Ballistic Missile Submarine, Wyoming

Broadside view of the Wyoming (SSBN-742) as the boat departed on patrol from Kings Bay, GA.

The Ballistic Missile Submarine, Wyoming (SSBN 742) will be christened at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 15, 1995, at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation, Groton, Connecticut. Wyoming will be christened by Monika Owens, wife of Admiral William A. Owens, Vice-Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mrs. Owens will formally name the ship by breaking a bottle of champagne over the submarine, in the age-old Navy tradition.

Named for our 44th state, three previous ships have borne this name: a steam sloop-of-war (1859-1882) named for a Pennsylvania river; Monitor No. 10 (1902-1926), later renamed Cheyenne; and a battleship (1912-1947) which served in both World Wars.

The first Wyoming, a wooden-hulled screw sloop-of-war, was commissioned in 1859 and operated along the Pacific coast of the United States, and Central and South America until 1862. In June of that year, Wyoming proceeded to the Far East in what would prove to be a fruitless search for the Confederate cruiser Alabama.

In response to an outbreak of anti-foreign agitation in Japan, Wyoming sailed from Philadelphia to Yokohama, arriving in May 1863 to protect American lives and property. The unrest continued, however, and in June, two armed Japanese vessels attacked an American merchantman in the Strait of Shiminoseki.

When word of the attack reached American officials in Japan, they reacted by directing Wyoming to seize and, if necessary, destroy the offending vessels. On July 16, 1863, Wyoming entered the strait and began taking fire from shore batteries. Answering that fire, Wyoming steamed toward a bark, a brig, and a steamer, sinking the steamer and damaging the bark and the brig. During the hour-long battle, Wyoming was struck in the hull 11 times and suffered four men killed and seven wounded, one of whom later died. Significantly, Wyoming was the first foreign warship to take action to uphold treaty rights in Japan.

In 1867, Wyoming participated in a punitive expedition against Formosan natives who had killed a crew of shipwrecked American merchant sailors and spent the 1880s as a training ship for Naval Academy midshipmen. Wyoming was sold in 1892.

The second Wyoming was launched September 8, 1900, by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco. In 1902, the ship sailed to Panamanian waters when a civil war in Columbia threatened American lives and interests, and remained in the region to monitor the situation until the spring of 1904. In 1908, Wyomingbecame the first U.S. Navy ship to be converted to oil fuel. A year later, Wyoming was renamed Cheyenne to clear the name for the projected Battleship. Cheyenne subsequently served as a submarine tender, and later as a miscellaneous auxiliary, and was decommissioned in 1926.

The third Wyoming was launched May 25, 1911, at William Cramp and Sons shipyard in Philadelphia. Following its commissioning in September 1912, Wyoming became the flagship of the Commander of the United States Atlantic Fleet. Wyoming participated in drills and exercises in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean over the next several years. In November 1917, Wyoming sailed for the British Isles, reaching Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, where the battleship became part of the 6th Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet. During this time, Wyoming performed convoy escort duties while guarding against the danger posed by the German High Seas Fleet.

In accordance with the 1930 London treaty limiting Naval armaments, Wyoming was demilitarized in 1931, with the removal of its armor, and guns and turret machinery from three of its six main battery turrets. Wyoming embarked on another phase of its lengthy career in 1941 when it was converted to use as a gunnery training ship. In this capacity, Wyoming fired off more ammunition than any other ship in the fleet, while training some 35,000 sailors on seven different types of guns. Wyoming was decommissioned in August 1947.

Wyoming is the 17th of 18 Ohio Class ballistic missile submarines authorized by Congress to be built. As a principal part of the U.S. strategic defense posture, Wyoming will serve as an ever-vigilant deterrent in an uncertain world. The submarine is 560 feet in length, has a beam of 42 feet, displaces approximately 18,750 tons submerged, and will carry a crew of 16 officers and 157 enlisted personnel.

The Ohio class submarines, known as Tridents because of the missiles they carry, are each capable of carrying up to 24 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). Tridents are the sea-based "leg" of the U.S. strategic triad-boomers, land-based ICBMs, and SSBNs - and account for more than 54 percent of all U.S. strategic assets. These Trident missile submarines are our nation's leading nuclear deterrent, but use only 34 percent of our strategic budget and 1.5 percent of naval personnel.

The first eight Ohio class submarines carry the Trident I C-4 ballistic missile. The remaining submarines of the class carry the improved Trident II D-5 ballistic missile. Stealth is the key to the SSBN survivability, and OHIO class submarines are among the quietest nuclear-powered submarines ever built.

Two complete crews, designated as "Blue" and "Gold," are assigned to each SSBN submarine. While one crew operates the submarine at sea, the other attends school, conducts training, and hones their skills in shore-based simulators. The nominal operating schedule is 77 days at sea followed by a 35-day maintenance period. To reduce in-port time for crew turnover and upkeep, Tridents have three large logistics hatches to facilitate rapid re-supply and repair. The Ohio class design features and modern maintenance concepts allows these submarines to operate for over 20 years between overhauls.

During the Cold War, U.S. ballistic missile submarines provided a strategic capability that could be neither detected nor destroyed. This survivability deterred nuclear war because the Soviet Union knew that in the event of an attack on America and/or her allies, U.S. ballistic missile submarines could launch a crippling retaliatory strike. The SSBN submarine also reduced the potential for large-scale conventional war by preventing a strategic imbalance that might have encouraged Soviet aggression. Today, our SSBN submarines continue their solemn task of deterring our adversaries from employing nuclear weapons against the United States and her allies.

The Ohio class submarines remain the most survivable part of the nuclear triad of strategic bombers, land-based ICBMs, and submarines. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and in compliance with arms reduction treaties, U.S. bomber and ICBM forces have undergone significant reductions in size and operational tempo. However, the fourteen Ohio class ships that are strategically loaded continue strategic deterrent patrols. Although the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990’s and former Soviet SSBNs largely returned to their bases, the U.S. SSBN force, including Ohio class submarines, actually increased its operational tempo during the first half of the 1990’s. In recent years, these submarines have taken on more tasks that are typically shouldered by SSNs. In an effort to allow the shrinking SSN force to continue to meet requirements set by Combatant Commanders and others, SSBNs have taken on training and testing roles that previously were almost exclusively handled by SSNs. But there is a limit to what missions an Ohio class submarine may undertake. In many respects the submarine’s nuclear deterrent mission makes it incompatible with most SSN missions.

Naval ships, including submarines, are generally designed to accomplish many tasks. However, the Ohio class submarine is the exception to this rule. It was designed for one task – nuclear deterrence. Everything about the submarine is centered on the Trident weapons system or the support of that weapons system. With the goal of maximizing the time that each ship can remain at sea when it is essentially invulnerable, the Trident weapons system as a concept extends beyond the ship itself to the maintenance and support structures ashore. Two new submarine ports were built from the ground up to accommodate the unique operational tempo of the Ohio class submarines so that all required maintenance, including drydock periods, could be completed in the 30-day refit periods that bookend each patrol. Training facilities and corresponding personnel programs were built exclusively around the two-crew concept that is the foundation of the high operational tempo of the Ohio class submarine. Equipment was designed to be easily removed from the ship and replaced within hours. Supplies were containerized to speed the process of replenishing a ship for patrol. Communications systems were designed to allow operation at deeper depths and with more redundancy. Even the Navy’s supply system was modified to accommodate the unique operations of the Ohio class submarine. The Ohio class submarine, and its Trident weapons system, in its role as a nuclear deterrent weapon is inseparable from its support and maintenance infrastructure ashore.

Facing ever increasing costs, an aging fleet and weapons stockpile, and a world that is fundamentally different than the one for which the Trident weapons system was designed, pressures to reduce, restructure, or even eliminate the Ohio class submarine force and its weapons system have increased. The first and most obvious question that must be asked before considering a reduction in the size of the Trident force is whether or not the mission for which they were originally designed – that of nuclear deterrence – is still a credible mission. The threat posed by Russia and its nuclear arsenal is significantly less that what it was thought to be over a decade ago. This fact, coupled with the sudden emergence of a worldwide terrorist threat, has pushed the study of nuclear strategy to the margins, if not completely off the table. This same fact certainly contributed to the quickness of President Bush’s treaty negotiations that produced the Moscow Treaty of 2001. By comparison, the START I treaty took over a decade to negotiate and ratify. However, scholars all uniformly agree that the nuclear threat is still there and cannot be ignored. The current situation with Iran is proof that nuclear weapons are increasingly being sought by smaller nations. Scholars also agree that a nuclear retaliatory capability is effective in deterring small nations from using their newly acquired capabilities but certainly is not effective in preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons. If anything, a nuclear retaliatory capability seems to encourage proliferation. With the proliferation of nuclear weapons comes the possibility that terrorists or terrorist organizations will obtain nuclear weapons. Nuclear strategists argue that a terrorist cannot be deterred from using a nuclear weapon through retaliatory threat and that pre-empting an attack is a more appropriate approach. However, a nuclear pre-emptive strike is considered implausible; instead, precision weapons with conventional ordnance and extensive command and control networks combined with greater intelligence capabilities are now the preferred means to eliminate or deter the terrorist threat. One author cautiously opined we are “transition[ing] to a world in which conventional weapons are the queens of the chessboard and nuclear weapons have a backstopping role.” In a nutshell, nuclear deterrence is still necessary to deter the aggressive tendencies of nations. However, the terrorist remains the “wild card” and must be countered differently. The question then becomes how much nuclear capability is enough.

The Ohio class submarine is a marvel of engineering and its Trident weapons system is a remarkably capable weapons system. It is no wonder that both the Navy and the civilians that direct the Navy want more out of this extraordinary machine. However, we cannot forget that the Ohio class submarine with its weapons system is the distillation of thirty years of nuclear deterrence and quintessentially outfitted for that one role. It is a role that cannot be diluted by other missions if the submarine is to be successful at nuclear deterrence.

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