Lockheed Martin-Built Trident II D5 Missile Achieves a Total of 148 Successful Test Flights Since 1989

: Posted On Wednesday, 25 September 2013 09:42

Defense Industry News - USA

Lockheed Martin-Built Trident II D5 Missile Achieves a Total of 148 Successful Test Flights Since 1989

The U.S. Navy has conducted four successful test flights of the Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missiles built by Lockheed Martin. The U.S. Navy launched the unarmed missiles Sept. 10 and 12 in the Atlantic Ocean from a submerged Ohio-class submarine home-ported at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia.

A Trident II launch from a submerged submarine.
Picture: US Navy

This event marked the 145th, 146th, 147th and 148th successful test flights of the D5 missile since design completion in 1989 – a reliability record unmatched by any other large ballistic missile.

“This ultra-capable system serves a critical role in deterring aggression,” said Doug White, vice president of Fleet Ballistic Missile programs, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, the Navy’s Trident missile prime contractor. “We are dedicated to supporting Navy Strategic Systems Programs in assuring the system’s continued readiness, reliability, performance and affordability.”

Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile components. (Lockheed Martin illustration)

The Navy launched the missiles as part of Follow-on Commander’s Evaluation Tests. The missiles had been converted into test configurations using kits produced by Lockheed Martin that contain range safety devices and flight telemetry instrumentation. As required by the Department of Defense’s National Command Authority, the U.S. Navy conducts a continuing series of operational system evaluation tests of the Trident Strategic Weapon System under the testing guidelines of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

First deployed in 1990, the D5 missile is currently aboard U.S. Navy Ohio-class and U.K. Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines. The three-stage, solid-propellant, inertial-guided ballistic missile can travel a nominal range of 4,000 nautical miles and carries multiple independently targeted reentry bodies. The Fleet Ballistic Missile team has produced six generations, each more capable than its predecessor: the Polaris A1, Polaris A2, Polaris A3, Poseidon C3, Trident I C4 and Trident II D5 missiles.

Lockheed Martin has been the Navy’s strategic missile prime contractor since the program’s inception in 1955. The United States and the United Kingdom signed the Polaris Sales Agreement in 1963, which was modified in 1982 to provide for the Trident II D5 missile system. Since 1968, Lockheed Martin has provided program management and engineering services to the Royal Navy under the terms of the agreement.