UGM-133 Trident II, or Trident D5 is a submarine-launched ballistic missile, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, California, and deployed with the Royal Navy and US Navy. It was first deployed in 1990, and is still in service.
UGM-133 Trident II was designed to be more sophisticated than Trident I, and have a greater payload capacity. It is accurate enough to be used as a first strike weapon. All three stages of the Trident II are made of graphite epoxy, making the missile much lighter. Trident II missiles are carried by British Vanguard class and US Ohio class submarines. USS Tennessee was the first submarine to be armed with Trident IIs. Trident II missiles are currently carried by fourteen Ohio class, and four Vanguard class SSBNs. There were 134 consecutive successful test launches of the D5 missile since 1989 with the most recent being carried out on the 7th and 8 June 2010 from USS Maryland (SSBN-738).
The development contract for UGM-133 Trident II was issued in October 1983. The first Trident II launch occurred in January 1987, and the first submarine launch was attempted by USS Tennessee (SSBN-734, the first D-5 ship of the Ohio class) in March 1989. The launch attempt failed because the plume of water following the missile rose to greater height than expected, resulting in water being in the nozzle when the motor ignited. Once the problem was understood relatively simple changes were very quickly made but the problem delayed the IOC (Initial Operational Capability) of Trident II until March 1990.Specifications of UGM-133 Trident II
- Purpose: strategic nuclear deterrence
- Unit Cost: US$30.9 million
- Range: 11,300 kilometres (7,000 mi)
- Maximum speed: > 6,000 m/s (>21,000 km/h, >13,422 mph).
- Guidance system: inertial, with Star-Sighting, GPS experiments done. but not deployed.
- CEP: Requirement...90–120 m (300–400 ft) That demonstrated by flight tests is significantly better.
- Warhead (in USA usage only): nuclear MIRV. Up to eight W88 (475 kt) warheads (Mark 5) or eight W76 (100 kt) warheads (Mark 4). The Trident II can carry 12 MIRV warheads but START I reduces this to 8 and SORT reduces this yet further to 4 or 5.
| Function | SLBM |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Lockheed Martin Space Systems |
| Size | |
| Height | 13.41 metres (44.0 ft) |
| Diameter | 2.11 metres (83 in) |
| Mass | 58,500 kilograms (129,000 lb) |
| Stages | 3 |
| Launch history | |
| Status | Active |
| Launch sites | LC-46, Cape Canaveral Ohio class submarines Vanguard class submarines |
| Maiden flight | 1987-01-15 |
