The Navy has successfully launched the 191st Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile during a shakedown cruise of the USS Louisiana, marking the boat’s readiness for deployment.
Northrop Grumman, which builds the solid rocket motors that power the Trident, announced the successful launch on Oct. 2. The test was one element of the Navy’s Demonstration and Shakedown Operation 32 for the Louisiana, the planned last Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine.
An unarmed version of the missile was launched from the submarine to certify its crew in the weapon’s operation. The Navy has experienced no solid rocket motor failures through 191 Trident II launches, according to Northrop.
During a deployment, the missile would be tipped with either legacy W88 warheads – a Trident can carry up to eight – or the W76 warhead designed by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The newest versions of the warhead, the W76-2, are manufactured at the Pantex Plant in Texas.
“Some motors that supported the unarmed flight test were the oldest Trident II D5 motors flown to date – demonstrating their reliability and proven performance,” Northrop said in the Oct. 2 statement.
The Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile is a three-stage missile currently deployed on U.S. Ohio-class and U.K. Vanguard-class submarines and will be carried aboard U.S. Columbia-class and U.K. Dreadnought-class submarines in the future, Northrop and the Navy said.
Northrop, under a contract from missile prime Lockheed Martin, manufactures solid-propulsion motor systems for all three stages of the missile. Northrop has delivered over two thousand Trident II D5 motors and cast nearly 87 million pounds of propellant since production began in 1985, the company said.
