The end of World War II launched the beginning of the nuclear age. Perhaps “launched” is the incorrect term, since the nuclear weapons used against Japan were actually dropped. Launching, however, was the next step in nuclear weapons development.
A new objective was to place nuclear warheads inside of missiles. America began work on missiles based on German V-1 rockets. The Germans had built approximately 30,000 V-1 rockets with more than 8,000 hitting targets in England and Belgium between June 1944 and March 1945. Copying the design of the V-1 rocket based on images and used, but nearly intact, rockets, Republic Aviation Corporation built the airframe (though the company subcontracted it out to Jeep producer Willys-Overland), while Ford Motor Company built the rocket engine. On Oct. 12, 1944, the JB-2 cruise missile (America’s replication of the V-1) was successfully tested at Eglin Field in Florida.
A New War Arises
By January 1945, Republic/Ford began production delivery of the JB-2 Loon, but the war ended before the missiles could be used. With the end of World War II, another war began: the Cold War. The Western democracies (led by the United States) and the Soviet Union faced off in a game of military developments; an era that came to be viewed under the military doctrine of “mutually assured destruction.” Nonetheless, the development of wartime materiel continued, and missiles were a primary focus for both sides.Meeting New Requirements
There were two more steps the U.S. military was hoping to accomplish: the creation of a ballistic missile with nuclear capability and the capability of firing such a missile from a submerged submarine.During the summer of 1956, the U.S. Navy sponsored a study on antisubmarine warfare called Project Nobska. The location of the gathering was at Nobska Point in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. One well known physicist attended: Edward Teller.
Teller had been part of the Manhattan Project during World War II and is considered the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb—a bomb that was first successfully detonated in the Pacific on Nov. 1, 1952. Another claim to fame, though a rather infamous claim, was his 1954 testimony against J. Robert Oppenheimer, when he stated, “I feel that I would like to see the vital interests of this country in hands which I understand better, and therefore trust more. … In this very limited sense I would like to express a feeling that I would feel personally more secure if public matters would rest in other hands.”
After the success of the 1952 detonation, Teller advocated for another laboratory that would focus on thermonuclear research. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) commissioned the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where Teller would first act as a consultant, then assistant director, and then director (1958–60).
During that summer of 1956, though, the U.S. Navy stated its objective for deploying submarines that could carry four 80-ton Jupiter ballistic missiles capable of carrying thermonuclear warheads by 1965. Frank Bothwell, of the Naval Ordnance Test Station, suggested a much lighter ballistic missile could be designed and produced. Teller upped the ante by stating that a one-megaton warhead (nearly 70 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima) could be placed inside a missile the size of a torpedo.
“On the one hand, the Navy went away happy, and the program got approved. On the other hand, when I came back to Livermore and told them of the work that was in store for them, people’s hair stood on end. They said, ‘What have you done? We can’t get a megaton out of such a small device, not in five years!’”
The Polaris and the SSBN
Early into the following year, the U.S. Navy added a caveat to the project. They wanted a ballistic missile that could be fired from a submerged submarine. In August of 1957, the Department of Defense and the AEC tabbed the LLNL with developing the warhead. Two months later, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik I. With anxieties running high, the military urged the LLNL to shorten the deadline by several years. The request was to have warheads ready for 16 submarines (each submarine would hold 16 missiles) by October of 1960.While the LLNL worked on the Polaris project, the U.S. Navy worked on a new class of submarines: nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN).
The first submarine of this new class was the USS George Washington (SSBN-598) with a motto of “First in Peace.” At 382 feet long and weighing 6,000 tons, it could submerge 700 feet (tested depth). It possessed a surface speed of 20 knots and a submerged speed of 25 knots. And as noted above, it was prepared to hold 16 missiles (and also had six 21-inch torpedo tubes). The USS George Washington was commissioned on Dec. 30, 1959, in Groton, Connecticut. The LLNL were already prepared with the warheads.
Testing the Missiles
On June 28, 1960, SSBN-598 steamed toward Cape Canaveral, where two Polaris missiles were loaded onboard. The submarine headed out to sea to test the missiles. On July 20, the USS George Washington became the first submerged submarine to successfully launch a missile.“Polaris from out of the deep to target. Perfect,” was the message sent to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from Cmdr. James Osborn, of the George Washington.
Five years ahead of schedule, the U.S. Navy and the LLNL had accomplished the almost unthinkable (at least in the short period of time it was conducted). A few months later, the SSBN-598 steamed to Charleston, South Carolina, to fill all 16 tubes with Polaris missiles. It was during this week in history, on Nov. 15, 1960, that the USS George Washington set out to sea for its first deployment, officially introducing the U.S. Navy into the nuclear age.
The USS George Washington played an integral part during the Cold War, making classified deterrent patrols along the Soviet coastline. The submarine enjoyed a 25-year career before being decommissioned on Jan. 24, 1985. The submarine was dismantled, but its conning tower remains on display at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, and it, and the Polaris legacy, lives on.
