Earlier this year, the company was awarded another deal for the development of the next generation of the Trident II strategic weapons system. The integrated, modernised missile will be carried aboard Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines to ensure the strategic weapon system remains credible through 2084.
First deployed in 1990, the Trident II D5 missile is currently aboard Ohio-class and UK Vanguard-class submarines and will remain in service into the 2040s. The three-stage, solid-propellant, inertial-guided ballistic missile can travel a nominal range of 4,000 nautical miles and carries multiple independently targeted reentry bodies.
The Fleet Ballistic Missile team has developed six generations of systems, each more capable than its predecessor, including Polaris A1, Polaris A2, Polaris A3, Poseidon C3, Trident I C4, and Trident II D5. The Trident II Strategic Weapon System is deployed aboard Ohio-class submarines and consists of the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile, the Reentry System, and supporting Shipboard Systems.
Each Ohio-class submarine can carry 20 D5 missiles, with the system also deployed aboard the United Kingdom’s Vanguard-class submarines under the provisions of the Polaris Sales Agreement. The Trident II D5 is a three-stage, solid-fuel, inertially-guided missile carrying multiple W76-Mk4/Mk4A or W88-Mk5 reentry bodies, launched by gas pressure from its tube before entering its boost phase and deploying reentry bodies after third-stage separation.
Originally designed for a service life of about 25 years, the Trident II system has been extended to counter ageing and obsolescence. Life-extended Trident II D5 missiles (D5LE) entered the Fleet in early 2017 and will serve with Ohio-class and Vanguard-class submarines, as well as being carried aboard the new Columbia-class and UK Dreadnought-class submarines.
