Tag Archives: polaris submarine

By the hand of Kluge!

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Some 70 years ago this month, in July 1956, the UGM-27 Polaris SLBM was spitballed at a symposium, starting a compressed four-year development cycle overseen by RADM William “Red” Raborn for the Navy’s side of it, and Kluge, the lucky sock monkey adopted by Lockheed’s technicians– and Kluge was there for every test launch!

Rear Admiral William “Red” Raborn, who led the development of the Polaris missile, smiles with good luck charm Kluge on his shoulder. (NHHC L38-72.03.03)

“Kluge,” the Lockheed Technicians’ lucky monkey who has been on all the test firings of the Polaris Missile in the last two years, oversees the Missile Control Center. “Kluge” is a term meaning jury-rigged, July 1960.

Polaris replaced the Regulus I (RGM-6) and Regulus II nuclear (W5 6-120 kT warhead) cruise missile systems in the U.S. Navy’s submarine-launched strategic deterrent role. It also superseded a planned naval derivative of the US Army’s Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile and would remain in service with 41 assorted SSBNs (the “41 for Freedom” submarines) across five classes until augmented by the Poseidon (C3) missile starting in 1972 and fully replaced in 1981.

The first of the 41 for Freedom submarines was USS George Washington (SSBN-598), which made history by successfully launching the first Polaris A1 missile from a submerged position on 20 June 1960.

A total of 1,409 Polaris missiles were manufactured, including X models and A1, A2, and A3 production models.

Gratefully, none were ever expended in combat.

The USNI has a great oral history collection on the program.

Red Raborn retired as a Vice Admiral in 1963 after 39 years of service, and later became DCI.

I’m not sure what happened to Kluge. Hopefully he is enjoying retirement.

The (Not So) Silent (all the Time) Service

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Happy National Shuffleboard Day (tomorrow).

Via the archives of the U.S. Naval Submarine School at Groton comes this little nugget:

The ballistic missile submarine USS Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN-600) had a shuffleboard mounted on a torpedo rack so that the crew could play tournaments. If the sub was ever in a situation in which the rack was needed, the CO said he was prepared to fire the shuffleboard out of the tube.
A George Washington-class FBM rushed into service during the Cold War to curb the “missile gap,” using components initially assembled for the Skipjack-class nuclear attack submarine USS Scamp (SSN-588), SSGN-600 was laid down on 20 May 1958 by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard; named Theodore Roosevelt and redesignated SSBN-600 on 6 November 1958; launched on 3 October 1959; sponsored by Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth– TR’s then 75-year-old daughter– and commissioned on 13 February 1961.

U.S. Navy Launches Third Polaris Submarine. U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN 600) is shown during launching ceremonies at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California, on 3 October 1959. She is designed to fire Polaris missiles surfaced or submerged. The nuclear-powered vessel is 380 feet long and has a submerged displacement of 6,700 tons. Mrs. Alice Roosevelt, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, christened the boat named for her father. The photograph was released on 8 October 1959. (9/30/2014).

She was the first FBM to transit the Panama Canal and stood out of Charleston on her first deterrent patrol on 19 July, just five months after commissioning. After 46 patrols, on 1 December 1979, she became the first FBM to offload her A-3 Missiles at the newly built Explosives Handling Wharf at Bangor and was decommissioned on 28 February 1981. Her Final dismantling and recycling were completed in 1995.

HMS Repulse (SSBN) 1983 Documentary

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Launched on 4 November 1967, she was the last of her class remaining in service with the navy, decommissioning in 1996. Repulse was the third Polaris Missile submarine of the Resolution class to be planned; HMS Renown was the second. Due to delays with Renown’s build at Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead shipyard, the Barrow-in-Furness Vickers built Repulse overtook Renown and was commissioned second of class. Repulse famously ran aground on launch, much to the delight of the CND protesters and was subsequently “blacked” by the shipyard unions. She survived all of these setbacks to become the longest-serving Polaris submarine.