20 December 2001
US Navy conducts final Trident I C4 missile tests
Defense Systems Daily

The US Navy yesterday successfully fired three TRIDENT I C4 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs). Earlier this month the Navy fired four similar missiles. The missiles were fired from the strategic submarine USS OHIO (SSBN 726) in a launch operation conducted on the test range east of Cape Canaveral off the Florida coast.

The latest missile test launches were the last in the series of evaluation tests conducted by the US Navy since the 1970s to monitor the safety, reliability, readiness and performance of the TRIDENT I C4 Strategic Weapon System (SWS). The TRIDENT I C4 SWS will be retired from strategic service in 2005 in favor of the more modern, accurate and supportable TRIDENT II D5 missile system, which is currently deployed in the Atlantic fleet.

"Over 25 years and 225 development and operational test flights, the C4 missile achieved an astounding 89% mission success rate said Tom Morton, vice president, strategic missile programmes, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the builders of the missiles,"

TRIDENT I C4 is a three-stage, solid propellant, inertial-guided submarine-launched ballistic missile. It is 34 ft in long, 74 inches in diameter, weighs 73,000 lbs., has a nominal range of 4,000 nautical miles, and carries up to eight Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs).

Operating in the Pacific Ocean aboard six Ohio-class TRIDENT I SSBNs, TRIDENT I C4 missiles are the oldest, continuously operated, Fleet Ballistic Missiles ever deployed by the US Navy.