Ohio-class Submarine - History

History

The first eight Ohio-class submarines were armed at first with 24 Trident I C4 SLBMs. Beginning with the ninth Trident submarine, USS Tennessee (SSBN-734), the remaining boats were equipped with the larger, three-stage Trident II D5 missile. The Trident II missile carries eight multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV), in total delivering more destructive power than the Trident I missile and with greater accuracy. Starting with USS Alaska in 2000, the Navy began converting its remaining ballistic missile submarines armed with C4 missiles to carry D5 missiles. This task was completed in mid-2008.

The first eight submarines had their home ports at Bangor, Washington, to replace the submarines carrying the Polaris A3 missile that were then being decommissioned. The remaining ten submarines originally had their home ports at Kings Bay, Georgia, replacing the Poseidon and Trident Backfit submarines of the Atlantic Fleet. During the conversion of the first four submarines to SSGNs (see below), five of the submarines, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Nebraska, Maine, and Louisiana, were transferred from Kings Bay to Bangor. Further transfers occur as the strategic weapons goals of the United States change.