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Ohio class submarines
The United States has
18 Ohio class submarines:
14
nuclear-powered SSBNs, each armed with 24
Trident II SLBMs; they are also known as
"Trident" submarines, and provide
the sea-based leg of the triad of the United
States strategic deterrent forces
4 nuclear-powered SSGNs, each armed with
154 Tomahawk cruise missiles with conventional
warheads
The 14 Trident II SSBNs
together carry around fifty percent of the
total US strategic warhead inventory. The
exact number varies in an unpredictable and
highly classified manner, below a maximum
set by various strategic arms limitation treaties.
Although the missiles have no pre-set targets
when the submarine goes on patrol, the platform,
when required, is capable of rapid targeting
using secure and constant at-sea communications
links. The Ohio class are the largest submarines
ever constructed for the US Navy, and are
second only to the Russian Typhoon class submarine
in mass and size. A single submarine can wield
the destructive power of more than nine times
the total allied ordnance dropped in the European
theater in World War II.
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