41 Aweigh

Mrs. Hubert Humphrey smashed a champagne bottle against the flag-draped hull, and the 425-ft. U.S.S. Will Rogers slid down the ways into the Thames River. Thus the 41st--and last --nuclear-powered Polaris missile submarine was launched last week in the General Dynamics Corporation's yards at Groton, Conn. For the U.S., it marked the end of a historically successful effort to develop seapower able to strike any target on earth.

The program began in 1955, when President Eisenhower directed the Navy to adapt the Army's liquid-fuel Jupiter missile for use on surface ships. This proved impractical, but the Navy within a year had made dramatic progress toward development of its own solid-fuel Polaris missile, and had also overcome many of the technical problems of designing a nuclear-powered submarine. The two programs logically became one. Working side by side, Admirals William F. Raborn (more recently head of the CIA) and Hyman Rickover headed a team that devised a complex navigational device that could plot the sub's movement under water and keep it synchronized with the weapons-guidance system. In December 1959, three years ahead of schedule, the first Polaris sub, the George Washington, was commissioned. Six months later, the sub radioed to Atlantic submarine headquarters at New London, Conn.: "Out of the sea--to target--perfect," signaling the first live launch of a missile from a submerged craft.

The Successor. The earliest class of subs carried 1,200-mile-range A-1 Polaris missiles. Now the Navy is on the way toward fitting most of the 41 missile-equipped subs with the 2,500-mile-range A-3 Polaris. Nuclear energy gives them unparalleled mobility and almost indefinite sea-keeping capacity; based in Spain, Guam and Scotland, they patrol up to 60 days each, returning to port to change their 140-man crews. Not surprisingly, the Soviet Union has tried to follow suit, is believed to have up to 15 nuclear-powered subs; each is equipped with three 500-mile-range missiles, and in all likelihood they can be launched only from the surface.

The U.S. aims to stay ahead. Last week the House of Representatives voted $300 million for the coming year's costs of developing the Poseidon (or C3) missile, which the Defense Department envisions as Polaris' successor on the Navy's missile-carrying subs. Three feet longer than the 31-ft. Polaris, carrying almost twice its 1.5-megaton payload, the Poseidon is expected to be operational in the 1970s.

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