US Navy Jupiter SSBN

[Triton]

During the mid-1950s, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Arleigh Burke sponsored a high-priority program to develop a naval intermediate range ballistic missile.

On November 8, 1955, the Secretary of Defense established a joint Army and Navy intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) program--Jupiter. The sea-based Jupiter program was going to send the missile to sea using converted merchant ships. In 1956, a schedule was developed to send the first Jupiter-armed merchant ships to sea in 1959. Some studies were also addressing the feasibility of submarines launching the Jupiter IRBM from the surface, with four missiles to be carried in a nuclear propelled submarine of some 8,300 tons displacement.

Caption for artist's impression:

Forced to join the Army in a quest for a ballistic missile force, the Navy produced several preliminary designs for a submarine to launch the liquid-propellant Jupiter missile. This version has four SLBMs in a modified Skipjack hull. Satellite navigation is shown being used as the submarine's sail penetrates the surface.

From Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines by Norman Polmar and Kenneth J Moore, Brassy's, Inc., 2004.

 

[Michel Van]

so far i know was this a Lockheed project

but to have big quantities of liquid Oxygen/Kerosene inside a Sub

not even the Soviets were so crazy

 

[Triton]

Two Jupiter SSBN configurations were considered in 1956 based on variations of the Skipjack-class (SSN-585) nuclear attack submarine design. Because they were far too long to be accomodated in their hull, all Jupiter missiles would be carried in their sails.

The original version, attached first, is dated August 18, 1956. Length is 396 feet and beam is 39 feet. 6,300 tons surface displacement and 8,300 tons submerged displacement.

The modified version, attached second, is dated August 21, 1956 and carries Jupiters redesigned to use multiple solid-fuel motors designated Jupiter S. Length is 376 feet and beam is 40 feet. 5,700 tons surface displacement and 7,700 tons submerged displacement.

Each was powered by a S5W nuclear reactor (15,000 SHP). Crew is 15 officers and 110 enlisted men. The large dome between the pairs of missiles was a radiometric star tracker. Note the elevator on which the missile was elevated before launch. Unlike the roughly contemporary Soviet ballastic missile submarines (Golf and Hotel), these craft would have fired with only their sails above water.

In December 1956, the US Navy broke away from the US Army Jupiter program, including the solid-fueled Jupiter S, in favor of the Polaris program.

Sources:

Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines by Norman Polmar and Kenneth J Moore, Brassy's, Inc., 2004

US Submarines Since 1945: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman, US Naval Institute, 1994.

 

[Triton]

so far i know was this a Lockheed project

but to have big quantities of liquid Oxygen/Kerosene inside a Sub

not even the Soviets were so crazy

According to Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines by Norman Polmar and Kenneth J Moore, Brassy's, Inc., 2004:

The Navy's leadership had objected strenuously to the joint program, because the Army was developing the liquid-propellant Jupiter missile. The Navy considered liquid propellants too dangerous to handle at sea, and a 60-foot (18.3 m) would be troublesome even aboard surface ships.

The Navy still had severe misgivings about the use of highly volatile liquid propellants aboard ship, and studies were initiated into solid propellant missiles. However, solid propellants had a low specific impulse and hence were payload limited. The major boost for solid propellants came in mid-1956, when scientists found it feasible to greatly reduce the size of thermo-nuclear warheads.

Information about the PGM-19 Jupiter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGM-19_Jupiter

 

[Grey Havoc]

Chrysler PGM-19 Jupiter

(Designation-Systems.net aka Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles)

not even the Soviets were so crazy

To be fair, the USN did eventually start development on the solid fueled Jupiter S, before dropping it in favour of Polaris.

 

[Hanz2k]

As far I remember from a book about space race between US and USSR move from Jupiter to Polaris was result of two „revolutions”. one with aluminium oxidizer polimer solid fuels and second - miniaturization of nuclear warhead. Solid Jupiter was a rocket with asphalt based solid fuels and Nagasaki type nuclear bomb which were very inefficient.

 

[Archibald]

Edward N. Hall - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This man was all important in making solid-fuel missiles a reality.

Mind you, he a had a younger brother named Theodore Hall...

Theodore Hall - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ed and Ted Hall...

Well, the younger Hall was later identified as one of Klaus Fuchs pals: a Manhattan Project soviet spy.

Sooo, at the end of the day...
- Ed Hall was working hard to send atomic bombs on Moscow via solid-fuel ICBMs.
- Ted Hall was working hard to send atomic bombs SECRETS to Moscow via spies.

The two brothers only realized that after the end of Cold War...

Un-be-lie-va-ble.

 

[Hanz2k]

Just found the names:

Jack Parsons - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

and

Charles Bartley - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Parsons was responsible for asphalt fuel (BTW used for Gen 1 JATO) and Bartley expanding his work replacing asphalt.

 

[Deleted member 4286]

During the mid-1950s, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Arleigh Burke sponsored a high-priority program to develop a naval intermediate range ballistic missile.

On November 8, 1955, the Secretary of Defense established a joint Army and Navy intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) program--Jupiter. The sea-based Jupiter program was going to send the missile to sea using converted merchant ships. In 1956, a schedule was developed to send the first Jupiter-armed merchant ships to sea in 1959. Some studies were also addressing the feasibility of submarines launching the Jupiter IRBM from the surface, with four missiles to be carried in a nuclear propelled submarine of some 8,300 tons displacement.

Caption for artist's impression:

From Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines by Norman Polmar and Kenneth J Moore, Brassy's, Inc., 2004.

About Navy's ideas in 1958 about space mission; linked to Jupiter

 

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

Test ships to support the Jupiter FBM program:

Early design for the USNS Observation Island (EAG-154):

EAG-154 sketch design with Jupiter IRBM

A sketch or preliminary design by BUSHIPS Code 440 (Hull Design Branch) dated September 1956 for a conversion of EAG-154 to test-launch the liquid-fueled Jupiter IRBM. When the Jupiter program was replaced by the solid-fueled Polaris program in December 1956 the ship was laid up until an entirely new and much simpler design could be prepared.

Photo No. None
Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (UA-437)

Source: https://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux2/AG/AG154-p.html

Further information on the design: https://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux2/AG/AG154.html

Two preliminary designs for new-constructuon FBM ships, which replaced the unnamed EAG-155 to be converted from the SS Prairie Mariner/USS Francis Marion in the FY59 Construction Program:

Combatant with six liquid-fueled Jupiter IRBMs

Sketch by the BUSHIPS Preliminary Design Branch (Code 420) dated 15 October 1956 for a combatant ship with six liquid-fueled Jupiter IRBMs. The 8,500-ton displacement ship would have had dimensions of 440' x 60' x 19.5' and a speed of 25 knots. This was at the low end of a study that included ships up to 31,600 tons and 31 knots with 36 liquid-fueled missiles.

Photo No. None
Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command

Combatant with six solid-fueled Jupiter IRBMs

Sketch by the BUSHIPS Preliminary Design Branch (Code 420) dated 15 October 1956 for a combatant ship with six solid-fueled Jupiter IRBMs. The 9,000-ton displacement ship would have had dimensions of 440' x 60' x 20' and a speed of 25 knots. This was near the low end of a study that included ships up to 31,600 tons and 31 knots with 28 solid-fueled missiles. The proposed solid-fueled Jupiter missile was significantly shorter than the liquid-fueled variant but had a diameter and weight much larger than POLARIS.

Photo No. None
Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command

Source: https://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux2/AG/AG155-p.html

Further information on the design: https://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux2/AG/AG155.html

 

[Scott Kenny]

All I have to say about the idea of going out to sea with Kerolox IRBMs can be summed up as "(ALL the expletives deleted) NO!"

 

[Dilandu]

All I have to say about the idea of going out to sea with Kerolox IRBMs can be summed up as "(ALL the expletives deleted) NO!"

That's why essentially no one even tried that. For all safety concerns of nitric acid, its nowhere as problematic as liquid oxygen.

 

[Archibald]

Fact is the Soviets did mastered storable propellant SLBMs - R-27, then R-29. Solid-fuel development in URSS had a tortured history, starting with the RT-1 and RT-2 missiles. Took even longer to find its way into SLBMs.

 

[Dilandu]

Fact is the Soviets did mastered storable propellant SLBMs - R-27, then R-29.

True. A large solid-fuel motors in 1950s were still too big leap into unknown. The money-rich USN could afford such bold move (and even for it the cost of Polaris was overwhelming). The USSR preferred less ambitious, but more guaranteed to work approach.

 

[Archibald]

On the Air Force side Minuteman beginnings circa 1956 were difficult. It took one stubborn guy with a pigghead of a character - Edward N. Hall - against a trio of stubborn SAC heavyweights : Benny Schriever, Tommy Power and Curtiss LeMay.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_N._Hall

Ed Hall vision ultimately prevailed, albeit Benny Schriever soon got enough of him and he was promptly sacked, first to NATO and later, to United Aircraft.

Even more astonishing fact was that Ed little brother Ted Hall was one of the Manhattan Project's atomic spies: he was a pal of Klaus Fuchs, except unlike him he was never caught, at least until the 1990's when Cold War was over and he was dying of cancer.

Theodore Hall - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ed slipped through the cracks of Project VENONA.

One of the craziest spy stories of the Cold War.

Once uppon a time in America were two brothers.
-Ed Hall was sending nuclear stuff to Moscow via Minuteman missile.
Ted Hall was sending nuclear stuff to Moscow via spying.

Their post Cold War sunday lunches must have been... interesting.