Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines

The first of 31 larger, quieter boomers that would carry America's sea-based nuclear deterrent through the 1990s. Bigger missile tubes allowed conversion from Polaris to Poseidon MIRVed missiles, and later Trident I — multiplying the destructive potential of every patrol. Together with the Madison and Franklin classes, these 31 boats held the line through the most dangerous decades of the Cold War.