By DENNIS M. DWYER

On 5 October 2000, the U.S. Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) office will celebrate its 45th year of service to U.S. national security and to the preservation of world stability. SSP traces its origins to the Eisenhower administration’s landmark decision in 1955 to develop a sea-based intercontinental ballistic missile. The first submarine-launched Polaris A1 missile, the program didn’t go to sea championed by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Arleigh Burke and directed by Rear Adm. William F. "Red" Raborn, went to sea just five years later when the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) USS George Washington commenced the U.S. Navy’s first strategic-deterrence patrol. The Polaris program was a remarkable feat of engineering research, development, and acquisition—and of Navy/industry teaming.

SSP’s legacy of excellence continues. Today, an unmatched strategic-deterrent capability is embodied in 18 U.S. Navy Ohio-class and four Royal Navy Vanguard-class SSBNs outfitted with the Trident weapon system. SSP is responsible for ensuring that the Navy deploys the most effective deterrent to major war the world has ever known.

When I became the director of SSP last May, I assumed the responsibility for protecting this legacy and for ensuring the future viability of our nation’s submarine-launched deterrent. Our vision at SSP is simple: "We will be the nation’s premier provider of cost-effective nuclear and conventional sea-based deterrent missile systems and related technologies." Changes in motion today will improve our ability to achieve this vision tomorrow.

The results of strategic arms control treaties, as well as the Nuclear Posture Review, have led to the decision to change the composition of the sea-based leg of the nation’s strategic triad (ICBMs, manned bombers, and SSBNs). Implementation of that decisions has started. The Navy’s fleet of 18 SSBNs will be reduced to 14. While the overall numbers of U.S. nuclear weapons in the triad have been reduced over the last two decades, the percentage that are sea-based has increased.

USS Ohio, lead ship in the class, was commissioned in 1981. USS Louisiana, the 18th and final SSBN in the class, was commissioned in 1997. Currently, seven Ohio-class submarines are deployed in the Pacific Ocean with Trident I (C4) missiles. The eighth Pacific SSBN, USS Alaska, is currently being converted from the C4 to the Trident II (D5) missile system.

In the Atlantic Ocean, 10 U.S. and four U.K. submarines are deployed with D5 missiles. The four oldest C4-capable SSBNs will be removed from strategic service beginning in 2003, and the four remaining C4 SSBNs will be converted to the Trident II strategic weapon system. This transformation will result in an all-D5 fleet-ballistic-missile (FBM) force for both oceans and both countries.

In May, USS Alaska entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to undergo conversion. The removal of her C4 missile tubes and equipment is complete. The installation of the D5 system is ahead of schedule. USS Nevada will begin her conversion in January 2001. The removal of the four oldest SSBNs from strategic service will begin in 2003.

In 2005, USS Henry M. Jackson will restart the backfit-conversion process and begin the first Ohio-class refueling overhaul, followed by USS Alabama in 2006. Refueling of the remaining SSBNs will follow at the rate of one per year beginning in 2007.

For SSP, the key to success of the backfit conversion is the installation of the Trident II launching system. In addition to missile launch tubes, each submarine’s gas generator, cooling chamber, launch control group, and electronics also will be converted to the D5 configuration. After a four-year period of dormancy, the production of D5 launch tubes was successfully resumed at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Sunnyvale, Calif. Today, all 24 of the Alaska’s launch tubes are ready for installation at Puget Sound.

As a part of this conversion, SSP is addressing the obsolescence of existing shipboard subsystems. New systems are based on commercial architecture and components. For the Strategic Fire Control system, for example, the Mk98 Mod 4 design, developed by SSP and General Dynamics Defense Systems, will be installed first on the Alaska. This complex, nuclear-certified Fire Control System is not only less expensive, but also easier to integrate with other modern shipboard systems—allowing us to put the system on a "refresh cycle" for periodic upgrades to its hardware and software.

SSP actually began this application of commercial-based architecture with the installation a few years ago of a new navigation system, currently in its first refresh cycle. We are now able to take advantage of the benefits of miniaturization and other rapid advancements of modern electronics. The second version of a navigation system based on commercial-off-the-shelf technology reduced from nine to two the number of cabinets for navigational components and allows us to reconfigure the navigation center to make the space available for other purposes.

In addition to conversion of FBM boats, we have started conversion work at Submarine Base, Bangor, Wash., to support the D5 program. This includes giving the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific (SWFPAC), the capability to handle and store both C4 and D5 missiles and warheads by 2002. In a second phase, to be completed in 2005, SWFPAC will have a limited capability to process D5 missiles. These improvements will allow the facility to support the "Backfit" Trident and the D5-capable boats that are transferring from the East Coast in order to create a balanced two-ocean D5 fleet.

With our Sailors in mind, SSP has begun giving the Trident Training Facility in Bangor the capability for training with both C4 and D5 operational systems. Bangor’s training facilities will be the first Navy installations to receive the modernized fire control and navigation systems.

After careful studies of the potential hull life of the Ohio-class submarines, the Navy decided to extend their planned service life to 44 years. A two-year refueling of the nuclear propulsion plant will occur at their midlife. An extended service life for strategic shipboard systems was made feasible through SSP’s adoption of commercial architecture and the provision for periodic system upgrades throughout the 44-year lifespan of the boats.

Two of the biggest challenges involve determining the service life of the three-stage boost motors that comprise the missile propulsion system and modernizing the extremely complex D5 guidance system and missile electronics. This past April, the Navy delivered to the deputy secretary of defense a report outlining six options to ensure a credible submarine-launched ballistic missile program until 2044. High-level policy discussions have already started and will continue throughout the autumn months to determine the best and most affordable path for the D5 Life Extension Program. In the world of SSP, it usually does take rocket scientists to reach the right decision, and we remain blessed in having the best of the best serving in the Trident program.

The missile’s warhead systems also have aged. The Department of Defense and the Department of Energy jointly manage the program to maintain these systems. We recently completed a review of the W76, the older Navy warhead and the most numerous in the entire U.S. arsenal. Engineering development will develop the changes and modernization effort necessary to extend the life of this warhead from 20 to 60 years. In the future, we will conduct the same modernization process for the newer Navy warhead, the W88, which is now more than 10 years old.

SSP’s vision statement also says: "We will aggressively seek opportunities to use our core disciplines while remaining flexible to meet changing needs." To ensure the stability of our technical expertise in the future, we also are addressing such issues as the unique U.S./U.K. relationship, the reassignment of the Naval Treaty Implementation Program to SSP, the SSGN (nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine) Attack Weapon System, and the development of the Advanced Land Attack Missile.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan signed the U.S./U.K. Polaris Sales Agreement, which is the baseline for the current 37-year joint program with the Royal Navy.

HMS Vengeance is the fourth and final Vanguard-class Trident submarine to be delivered to the Royal Navy. The Vengeance came to the United States this fall for her post-construction Demonstration and Shakedown Operations (DASO). The DASO included her first firing of a D5 missile on the Eastern Test Range off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Fla. Vengeance will be loaded out with her complement of D5 strategic missiles at the Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic at the Navy’s submarine base in Kings Bay, Ga., and then will return to the United Kingdom for strategic service.

Closely aligned with SSP’s vision to be the premier provider of nuclear and conventional deterrent missile systems is the management of the Navy’s compliance with a host of arms control treaties that have been entered into by the United States. This function, performed under the Naval Treaty Implementation Program (NTIP), came under SSP jurisdiction in October 1999. The program is staffed with a unique group of arms control experts who ensure Navy compliance with such complex treaties as the ABM Treaty, Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions, and the Open Skies Treaty.

SSP’s mission continues to evolve in other ways. Current plans call for verting the four Ohio-class submarines slated to be removed from strategic service beginning in 2003 into SSGNs--Tomahawk cruise-missile shooters and Special Operations Force platforms. SSP has teamed with the Naval Sea Systems Command’s Program Executive Officer Submarines (PEO SUB) to manage the design of the SSGN Attack Weapon System. Specifically, SSP is responsible for the design of a launcher system that will house and fire up to 154 Tomahawk missiles. We also will integrate the Tomahawk Weapons Control System, which includes Mission Planning, into the COTS-based Launcher Control System. That is the beauty of commercial architectures--it is far easier to integrate systems that originated as separate entities.

SSP has been able to apply its extensive weapons engineering expertise to the development of the Navy’s Advanced Land Attack Missile. ALAM will provide defense suppression and fire support for the Marine Corps in the 21st century. SSP has teamed with PEO Surface Strike of the Naval Sea Systems Command to manage the development, selection, and integration of ALAM, which is targeted for installation in the Zumwalt-class land-attack destroyer of the 21st century (DD 21). Options for backfitting ALAM into submarines and existing Aegis cruisers and destroyers also are being considered.

These and other developments illustrate how SSP has built on its rich heritage of technical innovation and expertise as we set our course for the 21st century. Operational tests continue to demonstrate the outstanding performance and reliability of the entire SSBN force.

In recent evaluative test flights, four C4 missiles were fired from USS Henry M. Jackson and two D5 missiles each were fired from USS Kentucky and USS Wyoming. The Trident I and Trident II missiles continue to exceed the Navy’s goals in both accuracy and reliability—making them the most formidable and reliable systems in the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Current programs and future development plans signal that Strategic Systems Programs office will retain its preeminence in its unique mission—one that is dedicated to maintaining peace and stability in our rapidly changing world.