UUM-44 SUBROC

The UUM-44 SUBROC, short for Submarine Rocket, was an anti-submarine weapon fielded by the United States Navy during the Cold War. Fired from the standard 21-inch torpedo tube of an attack submarine, it rose to the surface under a solid-fuel rocket motor, flew a predetermined ballistic path, and then released a reentry vehicle carrying the W55 nuclear depth bomb, a 25 kiloton warhead that sank to its target and detonated nearby so that a direct hit was unnecessary. Development began in 1958 after the Project Nobska submarine warfare study of 1956, and it reached initial operating capability aboard the submarine Permit in 1964. Its role was urgent, long-range attack on submarine targets that no other weapon could reach without giving away the launching boat. Production ended in 1968, the weapon was never used in combat, and the warheads were decommissioned in 1990. Its planned successor, Sea Lance, was cancelled the same year.