The UGM-96 Trident I, or Trident C4, was an American

submarine-launched ballistic missile A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ballistic missile capable of being launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of which carries a nuclear warhead ...

(SLBM), built by

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Lockheed Martin Space is one of the four major business divisions of Lockheed Martin. It has its headquarters in Littleton, Colorado, with additional sites in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; Sunnyvale, California; Santa Cruz, California; Huntsvil ...

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nor ...

. First deployed in 1979, the Trident I replaced the

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as ...

missile. It was retired in 2005, having been replaced by the

Trident II A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other marine ...

. The missile was a three-stage, solid-fuelled system, capable of carrying up to eight W76 warheads in the Mark 4 RB. The first eight s were armed with Trident I missiles. Twelve - and s were also retrofitted with Trident I missiles, which replaced older

missiles. In 1980, the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

requested Trident I missiles under the

Polaris Sales Agreement The Polaris Sales Agreement was a treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom which began the UK Polaris programme. The agreement was signed on 6 April 1963. It formally arranged the terms and conditions under which the Polaris mi ...

. In 1982, the agreement was changed to supply Trident II instead.

References

Cold War weapons of the United States Nuclear weapons of the United States Cold War submarine-launched ballistic missiles of the United States UGM-096 Military equipment introduced in the 1970s {{missile-stub

See also

References