The UGM-89 Perseus was a proposed

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

submarine-launched anti-ship (AShM) and anti-submarine (ASW)

cruise missile A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cru ...

that was developed under the Submarine Tactical Missile (STAM) project, which was also referred to as the Submarine Anti-ship Weapon System (STAWS). This missile system was to be the centerpiece for a proposed third-generation nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine championed by then-Vice Admiral

Hyman G. Rickover Hyman G. Rickover (27 January 1900 – 8 July 1986) was an admiral in the United States Navy. He directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of the U.S. Naval Reacto ...

, the influential but controversial head of the Navy's nuclear propulsion program.

Development

The Navy issued the STAM requirement in March 1969, and the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC) responded to this proposal, which included the formation of an undersea warfare program organization in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...

. It is unclear if this was to be an entirely new organization or part of the Lockheed Underwater Missile Facility (LUMF) which had been responsible for the design and development of the

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris (Latinisation of names, Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an ...

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

, and

Trident A trident (), () is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. As compared to an ordinary spear, the three tines increase the chance that a fish will be struck and decrease the chance that a fish will b ...

submarine-launched strategic ballistic missile (SLBM) systems for the U.S. Navy. In February 1970, the

missile designation In 1963, the U.S. Department of Defense established a designation system for rockets and guided missiles jointly used by all the United States armed services. It superseded the separate designation systems the Air Force and Navy had for designating ...

ZUGM-89A Perseus was reserved for the U.S. Navy presumably for the STAM/STAWS missile development program.

Design overview

Because of its large size, the UGM-89 Perseus missile could not be launched from the Navy's standard submarine

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s, but would be carried in a

vertical launching system A vertical launching system (VLS) is an advanced system for holding and firing missiles on mobile naval platforms, such as surface ships and submarines. Each vertical launch system consists of a number of ''cells'', which can hold one or mo ...

(VLS) housed within the proposed cruise missile submarine's hull. Twenty VLS tubes would be located in a separate compartment situated between the submarine's operations and reactor compartments. The individual launcher tube would be in dimension. The missile

warhead A warhead is the section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket (weapon), rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: *E ...

payload Payload is the object or the entity that is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of t ...

would be a new 21-inch (533 mm) diameter

homing torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

to be developed concurrently with the UGM-89 Perseus missile. By 1971, the STAM project had evolved into a long-range Advanced Cruise Missile (ACM) program capable of undertaking a variety of combat missions, including strategic nuclear strike ''(see table below)''. The proposed ACM versions of the UGM-89 Perseus STAM would use a slightly enlarged launch tube (, and 1979 would have been the date for its initial operational capability (IOC).

Cancellation

The UGM-89 Perseus missile system was cancelled in 1973, and its proposed nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine platform was officially cancelled in 1974, with the Navy deciding to build the less expensive ''Los Angeles''-class nuclear-powered attack submarines, which would subsequently carry both the

Harpoon anti-ship missile The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing Defense, Space & Security). The AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM) and later AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack Miss ...

and

Tomahawk cruise missile The BGM-109 Tomahawk () Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is an American long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is primarily used by the United States Navy and Royal Navy in ship and submarine-based land-attack operations. ...

s. The ASW component of the UGM-89 Perseus would later serve as the baseline for the proposed Sea Lance stand-off ASW missile system, which would also be cancelled.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

UGM-89 Perseus
- Directory of US Military Rockets and Missiles
UGM-89 Perseus
- Harpoon series

-

Encyclopedia Astronautica The ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'' is a reference web site on Space exploration, space travel. The encyclopedia includes 79,433 articles with 13,741 illustrations, a comprehensive catalog of missiles, spacecraft, space technology, astronauts, an ...

Missile Design Series
- GlobalSecurity.org

- ''

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...