Submarine-launched cruise missile
A submarine-launched cruise missile, abbreviated SLCM, is a cruise missile launched from a submarine.
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Submarine-launched cruise missiles include land-attack weapons for predetermined land targets with conventional or nuclear payloads, as well as anti-ship weapons. Some missiles have variants for both roles.
VerifiedThe reference identifies the ability to remain undetected and launch while submerged as an advantage of submarine cruise-missile launch platforms over guided-missile destroyers and cruisers.
VerifiedThe U.S. Navy's first land-attack cruise-missile submarines deployed with Regulus missiles from 1958 until their retirement in 1964, when Polaris ballistic-missile submarines arrived in the Pacific.
Verified · 1964Tomahawk deployment on U.S. Navy attack submarines began in 1983, initially with both land-attack and anti-ship versions.
Verified · 1983Cruise-missile launch arrangements can differ between submarine designs. Four U.S. Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines were converted in the mid-2000s to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles from modified vertical ballistic-missile tubes; the reference contrasts this arrangement with cruise-missile launches through attack submarines' torpedo tubes.
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