Ohio Class FBM SSBNs

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Builders: General Dynamics Electric Boat Division, Newport News shipbuilding Norfolk Virginia.

Propulsion: 1 S8G Water cooled Nuclear Reactor powering General Electric Steam turbines

SLBM: 24x Lockheed Trident I C4 (SSBN 726~733), Trident II D5 In SSBN 734 onwards.

IBM BQQ-6. Raythelon BQS-13; spherical array for BQQ-6. AMETEK BQS-15. Western Electric BQR-15 (incl BQQ-9 signal processor). Raythelon BQR-19.

The Nuclear Sheild of the United States lies in the 18 strong class of Ohio Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines. Each of these 560ft monsters carries 24 Trident SLBMs that can carry up to 14x 100 kt MIRV warheads. This being the heaviest warload ever carried by a ship makes the Ohio class SSBN the most power weapon ever known to man. Also, the hull of the FBM SSBN is the second largest submarine in service today after the 941 Typhoon SSBN in Russia. The Ohio class are roughly three times the size of the 688 Los Angeles SSNs in service with the U.S Navy. Twenty four of these boats were origionally proposed during the cold war as successors to the Layfayette, James Madison and George Washington class SSBNs. The first unit, Ohio entered service on October 1st 1982. After the Trident I C4 SLBM was successfully tested in January that year. With a heavier payload, quieter machinery and greater performance amongst other things. This number was cut down to eighteen due to the lack of a need for such weaponry in the modern post-cold war world. With the 18th and final unit, the Louisiana entering service recently.

As well as being an effective nuclear deterent, the Ohio SSBN can also defend itself with equal effectiveness. This feature arises from the Mk-118 Torpedo FCS abd the Battery of Mk-48 ADCAP Torpedoes carried aboard. The accoustics of the FBM submairne are to minute that the Russians during the cold war were rumoured to look for places in the sea where the ambient noise was quieter than normal. Hence the FBM can cruise undetected by most submarines of the world's navies and shower an enemy nation with Nuclear warheads up to 11,100 km away.

Many beleive that there is no longer a need for such weapons of mass destruction now that the cold war is dead. But with the Republic of China building continiously onto it's nuclear arsenal, and with global instability a constant plague to the security of the population of the United States, such a deterence is imperative if a nuclear catostrophe is to be avoided. The Ballistic missile Submarine fleet will prove instrumental in detering the Taliban and it's band of Terrorists from ever using Nuclear Weapons on the United States.

726 Ohio	727 Michigan	728 Florida	729 Georgia
730 Henry M Jackson	731 Alabama	732 Alaska	733 Nevada
734 Tennessee	735 Pensylvania	736 West Virginia	737 Kentucky
738 Maryland	739 Nebraska	740 Rhode Island	741 Maine
742 Wyoming	743 Louisiana