UUM-44 SUBROC

The UUM-44 SUBROC (SUBmarine ROCket) was a type of submarine-launched rocket deployed by the United States Navy as an anti-submarine weapon. It carried a 5 kiloton nuclear warhead.

Development

Development began in 1958, with the technical evaluation being completed in 1963. That year, the US Navy received the first rounds and soon reached Initial Operation Capability (IOC) aboard the attack submarine Permit. When SUBROC reached IOC The US Navy's admiral in charge of weapons procurement stated that SUBROC was " .. a more difficult technical problem than Polaris." SUBROC was never used in combat, and all were decommissioned following the end of the Cold War in 1989. Because the nuclear warhead was an integral part of the weapon, SUBROC could not be exported to other navies, and there is no evidence that any were supplied to other NATO allies under the well-established arrangements for supplying other dual-key nuclear weapons. Towards the end of the 1970s, a planned successor, the UUM-125 Sea Lance, was frequently delayed due to funding problems and eventually canceled.