https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSM-N-8_Regulus
The SSM-N-8A Regulus or the Regulus I was a United States Navy-developed
ship-and-submarine-launched, nuclear-capable turbojet-powered second generation
cruise missile, deployed from 1955 to 1964. Its development was an outgrowth of
U.S. Navy tests conducted with the German V-1 missile at Naval Air Station Point
Mugu in California. Its barrel-shaped fuselage resembled that of numerous
fighter aircraft designs of the era, but without a cockpit. Test articles of the
Regulus were equipped with landing gear and could take off and land like an
airplane. When the missiles were deployed they were launched from a rail
launcher, and equipped with a pair of Aerojet JATO bottles on the aft end of the
fuselage.
The first launch from a submarine occurred in July 1953 from the deck of USS
Tunny, a World War II fleet boat modified to carry Regulus. Tunny and her sister
boat USS Barbero were the United States's first nuclear deterrent patrol
submarines. They were joined in 1958 by two purpose-built Regulus submarines,
USS Grayback and USS Growler, and, later, by the nuclear-powered USS Halibut.
The USS Halibut, with its extremely large internal hangar could carry five
missiles and was intended to be the prototype of a whole new class of cruise
missile firing SSG-N submarines.
The Navy strategy called for four Regulus missiles to be at sea at any given
time. Thus, Barbero and Tunny, each of which carried two Regulus missiles,
patrolled simultaneously. Growler and Grayback, with four missiles each, or
Halibut, with five, could patrol alone. Operating from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the
five Regulus submarines made 40 nuclear deterrent patrols in the Northern
Pacific Ocean between October 1959 and July 1964, including during the Cuban
Missile Crisis of 1962. According to the documentary "Regulus: The First Nuclear
Missile Submarines" by Nick T. Spark, their primary task in the event of a
nuclear exchange would be to eliminate the Soviet naval base at
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. These deterrent patrols represented the first ever in
the history of the submarine Navy and preceded those made by the Polaris missile
firing submarines.
Type
Cruise missile
Place of origin
United States
Service history
In service
1955-64
Used by
United States Navy
Production history
Manufacturer
Chance Vought
Produced
March 1951
Specifications
Weight
13,685 pounds (6,207 kg)
Length
32 feet 2 inches (9.80 m)
Diameter
4 feet 8.5 inches (1.435 m)
Warhead
3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) such as the W5 warhead or the W27 warhead
Engine
Allison J33-A-14 turbojet 4,600 lbf (20 kN)
Wingspan
21 feet (6.4 m) extended
9 feet 10.5 inches (3.010 m) folded
Operational
range
500 nautical miles (926 km)
Speed
Subsonic
Regulus submarines
Class Name In Commission number of missiles Post-Regulus use
Gato Tunny 1953-1965 2 Converted to amphibious
transport submarine
Balao Barbero 1955-1964
Grayback Grayback 1958-1964 4 Converted to amphibious
transport submarine
Growler 1958-1964
Halibut Halibut 1960-1964 5 Converted to special
mission submarine
Production of Regulus was phased out in January 1959 with delivery of the 514th
missile, and it was removed from service in August 1964. Some of the obsolete
missiles were expended as targets at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Regulus not
only provided the first nuclear strategic deterrence force for the United States
Navy during the first years of the Cold War and especially during the Cuban
Missile Crisis, preceding the Polaris missiles, Poseidon missiles, and Trident
missiles that followed, but it was also the forerunner of the Tomahawk cruise
missile.
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