Tritan II Missile | Brief summary on this Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM)

Introduction

The UGM-133A Trident II is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, California, and deployed with the American and British NAVY. The Trident II Strategic Weapons System is an improved SLBM with greater accuracy, payload, and range than the earlier Trident C-4. It is a key element of the U.S. strategic nuclear triad and strengthens U.S. strategic deterrence. The Trident II is considered to be a durable sea-based system capable of engaging many targets. It enhances the U.S. position in strategic arms negotiation with performance and payload flexibility that can accommodate active treaty initiatives (See New START). The Trident II's increased payload allows nuclear deterrence to be accomplished with fewer submarines, and its high accuracy – approaching that of land-based missiles – enables it to be used as a first strike weapon.
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Specifications

Range:With full load 4,230 nautical miles (7,840 km);
with reduced load approx. 7,500 mi (12,000 km) (exact is classified)
Guidance system: The MK 6 Astro-inertial guidance navigation system which is able to receive GPS (Global Positioning System) updates.
CEP: Requirement: 90 metres (300 ft). (Information from flight tests is classified.)[citation needed]
Warhead (in US usage only): The Mark 5 MIRV can carry up to 14 W88 (475 kt) warheads, while the Mark 4 MIRV can also carry 14 W76 (100 kt) warheads. START I reduced this to eight. New START provides for further reductions in deployed launch vehicles, limiting the number of Submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) to 288, and the number of deployed SLBM warheads to a total of 1,152.
Warhead (in UK usage): Under a 1958 agreement, the U.S. supplies the UK with blueprints of its own warhead designs but the design, manufacture and maintenance of UK warheads are purely a UK responsibility. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston constantly manufactures (and along with the maintenance and remanufacturing plant at Burghfield) a range of warheads of varying yield for fitting to Trident II missiles while pursuing ongoing research into new and improved warheads.

Tests