Back in 1954 the USS Nautilus proved submarines could stay at sea almost indefinitely thanks to nuclear power, but the Nautilus had limited firepower, torpedoes with conventional warheads. The US Navy wanted to go nuclear with their firepower as well as their engines, and their subs had to grow in size to accommodate these new weapons.
In the 1950s scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain raced to build a rocket powered atom bomb, and what better of launching it, than from a submarine. The Russians were the first to do it. The Americans wanted to take this Soviet breakthrough a step further and build a submarine that could launch missiles without having to surface first.
The secret was a seal that prevented water flooding into the launch tube when the missile hatch opened. A moment before launch the seal was blown apart, before water had a chance to pour in a valve opened shooting a burst of compressed air into the bottom of the launch tube. The air forced the missile out of the tube at over 50mph, it had enough momentum to cut through almost 40 metres of water, once in the air its rockets were able to ignite.
The USS George Washington, armed with 16 of these new Polaris missiles took to the sea in 1960. Each missile was 40 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. And the George Washington could launch them whist hidden beneath the waves from anywhere on Earth - a truly terrifying prospect.
The USS Pennsylvania carries 24 Trident nuclear missiles and is on constant readiness to respond to a message to launch them. The command to launch a nuclear missile is encoded with a cipher to ensure that the order has come directly from the President himself. The nuclear warheads on this submarine alone are more destructive than all the bombs dropped in both World Wars combined!
Clip from the “Big Bigger Biggest” documentary series exploring the engineering breakthroughs that have enabled us to develop some of the largest structures in existence.
Watch the complete documentary here - • Submarines - Extreme T...
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