COMMAND f LE POST tJAN 46 DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS WASHINGTON 25 D C IN REPLY REFER TO 11 April 1960 SEC ET PERSONAL - FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY To Flag and General Office rs Subj Dope POLARIS SYSTEM SPEEDUP Our original confidence in the soundness of POLARIS has been substantiated by the excellent results of the test program Thirty full scale test missiles have been flown Four fully guided flights using the designed fire control system have averaged a miss distance of less than half a nautical mile and demonstrated the ruggedness and reliability of the guidance unit hold this closely no releases of this to the news media The nuclear device of the warhead and the reentry body have been proven The navigation system for the submarine has demonstrated repeatedly its ability to maintain a position accuracy within 1 8 of a mile although the established system requirement is only 1 4 mile Over 60 pop-up tests and dummy firings from the GEORGE WASHINGTON's tubes assure the mechanical feasibility of submarine launching of the missile These successes have been the basis of Navy recommendations for acceleration and augmentation of the POLARIS program They won the approval of the acceleration program which you read about in the papers I ECLASSIFIED IA W E O 12958 OPNA i'JNST 5513 16 SERIES I I SECRET About 52 million dollars will be needed in FY 60 and FY 61 to finance this program Sixteen million dollars will be used to advance the completion dates of the last seven of the first nine approved submarines The remainder would be used for the acceleration of missile and missile component production Deployment dates for FBM 1 s must be met Ship construction is the only FY 60 program that will be affected by this acceleration It will be $8 million short and require cost adjustment or ship cancellations later Improvement of the United States deterrent retaliatory posture during the greatest danger period can be obtained by getting more FBM submarines to sea earHer Navy requested $952M in the FY 61 budget to build 3 POLARIS submarines in FY 61 and to procure long lead time items for 3 more in FY 62 On 8 March SecNav recommended to SecDef that the POLARIS program be augmented The recommendation contained two alternative proposals either augment by 6 SSB N s or augment by 3 SSB N s Increased procurement of long lead time items in FY 61 for 9 6 or 3 FY 62 SSB N s was also recommended Another recommendation would provide POLARIS missiles in surface ships Guided missile cruisers under construction or conversion could carry 8 missiles each heavy cruisers could be outfitted for 16 missiles each and Q ships converted from Victory ships could each carry 24 missiles 2 SECRET --------- • - - -- -- - - --------------------- L I ECLASSIFIED IA W E O 12958 OPNA 7INST 5513 16 SERIES ' - - - ' SECRET The augmentation program as approved consists of the original 3 SSB N s to be constructed in FY 1961 and long lead time procurement for 6 additional or a total of 9 FY 1962 submarines These additional long lead time procurements will be provided for by re-programming 2 SSN new construction out of the three SSN' s in the '61 program If tests progress as we hope they will we will ask for a supplemental appropriation for additional augmentation in January All of these sch mes involve increased costs and increases of men to operate Navy ships and systems We must get our personnel strengths up to where they belong 619 000 and keep them there Many people outside of the Navy are strong supporters of this system and some oppose it Don't let any claims that might be made for other systems obscure the facts Set any detractors straight on such statements as these - - Unclassified from he re to end of this article UNCLASSIFIED Detractor -- The Navy claims POLARIS is a 1200 mile missile 1 yet firings to date are only 800 miles Fact - - The first few firings of test vehicles were at ranges of a bout 800 miles These test vehicles in the development program require the use of heavy instrumentation These instrumented test firings have been aimed at achieving a range of over 900 miles The first tactical missile to go to sea will have a range of 1200 miles SECRET 3 I JECLASSIFIED IA W E O 12958 OPNAVINST SS13 16 SERIES - - --- - ·-· #' -• ' -' - • _ _ ---• - - _ _ • • - ' Ill-• •t _ 1 -- J - UNCLASSIFIED 2 Detractor -- The POLARIS Circular Error Probable or C E P is very large much more so than land based ICBM's Fact - The POLARIS C E P is as good as or better than any known missile today 3 Detractor -- An ICBM in an underground hardened site is just as invulnerable as POLARIS Fact - Hardening of our missile sites is only feasible and reasonably effective against missiles of low accuracy and low yields It is impossible to harden against a direct hit having the force of an atomic warhead With the improvements in accuracy that appear imminent the benefits of hardening are even more seriously degraded Any site with a fixed address is more vulnerable to ballistic missiles than a mobile site Civil defense experts have said that hardening the continental deterrent sites increases Civil Defense problems Hardening is not practical as a means of protecting airbases and bombers 4 Detractor -- The POLARIS submarine is very noisy and Russia will be able to keep them under surveillance at all times with their own submarines Fact - False At the slow speeds which the FBM submarine will use on patrol it is no noisier than conventional submarines If the tracking were done by a conventional submarine use of high speeds 4 UNCLASSIFIED I ECLASSIFIED IA W E O 12958 OPNA 'INST 5513 16 SERIES ------------------ UNCLASSIFIED by the nuclear FBM submarine would allow him to escape easily can the Soviets install ocean tracking stations Where There are no such places At any time with many submarines at sea which one is the FBM 5 Detractor -- Even if the POLARIS did have a small C E P the submarine's navigational error is very large Fact - FBM submarines will have the inertial navigation system installed This system has already proven its accuracy as shown by the Polar transits of the nuclear submarines The advent of the TRANSIT navigational satellite system will even improve the Navy's already excellent results 6 Detractor -- It is farcical to put POLARIS on surface ships since it couldn't be fired while the ship is rolling Fact - False for years The Navy has been firing from rolling platforms This is no new problem ship's rolling They have been fi red from OBSERVATION ISLAND and a ship's motion simulator 7 They can be fired regardless of Submerged submarines have little or no roll Detractor - - Solid propellant missiles mounted on moving freight cars will be a much better system than POLARIS Fact - Certainly any missile capable of being moved is less vulnerable than any fixed launching site However freight car missiles will be subject to both espionage and sabotage and can be fired only when 5 UNCLASSIFIED I ECLASSIFIED IA W E- -- 2958 OPNA·vINST 5513 16 SERIES ll i l i· UNCLASSIFIED pre-computed and specific locations are reached and after a considerable settling down period l Tracks can be destroyed I The POLARIS system will have continuously mobile and hidden missiles that can be fired at any time 8 Detractor - - POLARIS submarines are unable to communicate while submerged False Present techniques and installed equipment today allow us to communicate with a submerged submarine in any foreseeable launching area including under the Polar ice 9 Detractor -- POLARIS submarines have no defense and will be easy targets for enemy submarines once detected Fact - POLARIS has detection equipment and ASW torpedoes for protection just like any other submarine and other U S submarines will be operating in the same areas 10 Detractor - - Even if POLARIS is a 12 00 mile system it will be unable to reach many important targets in Russia Fact - A glance at a globe and a 9rief map exercise will show that the majority of potential targets which are concentrated in Western Russia can be reached by a 12 00 mile missile 11 Detractor - - Only about one-third of the POLARIS submarines can be kept on station r The remainder will be vulnerable in port 6 UNCLASSIFIED 12958 -l _E_c_1_ A_s_s_u_1E__ D - •'A W E o - - · · OPNA l 1NST 5513 16 SERIES I I I UNCLASSIFIED l I I I Fact - By the use of two crews for each submarine we will l be able to keep better than 50 percent of these submarines at sea In an emergency all submarines in port except those in major overhaul could immediately put to sea 12 Detractot - - The POLARIS missile will require much maintenance and won•t always be ready at sea Fact - A solid propellant missile requires infinitely less maintenance than a liquid propelled missile can be accomplished by forces afloat Maintenance of POLARIS It is anticipated that the shelf life of this missile will be measured in years 13 Detractor -- POLARIS is such a small missile its warhead doesn't carry much power Fact - The firing power of one POLARIS submarine is greater than all the bombs dropped in World War II including Hiroshima and Nagasaki 14 Detractor -- The operating area available to POLARIS sub- marines with its missiles only having a 1200 mile range are so small that enemy ASW submarines will easily be able to locate and destroy them Fact - Our own experience has shown that to find a nuclear submarine that is attempting to avoid detection is an extremely difficult task Our FBM submarines will have a possible launching area several L Ecuss1F1En IAW E o 12958 --- -- UNCLASSIFIED 7 OPNA VINST 5513 16 SERIES -- I UNCLASSIFIED times the size of the United States more than double this area Later longer range missiles will The nature of their mission dictates that they remain undetected rather than conducting normal submarine attack operations which give away the submarine location will be operating in the same areas Other submarines How will the enemy know which one is the FBM submarine The Navy's total strength is measured by the cooperation that exists within it and POLARIS Right now every one seems to be backing the CVA This is good Perhaps others will see our needs and assign more than ZS% of the defense budget to the Navy UNCLASSIFIED 8 I lECLASSIFIED IA W E O 12958 OPNA '1NST 5513 16 SERIES - • - Y' ' I