Submarine Growler Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Eric Boehm, curator of aviation here
at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

And today we’re gonna take a look at a rather rare artifact from the Cold War,

the Chance Vaught Regulus missile.

Conceived as the U.S. Navy’s first operational cruise missile,

the Regulus 1 was built by the Chance Vaught Corporation in 1947.

The Vaught Company had great success with its F4U Corsair
fighter airplane from World War 2.

But since that period, the next three airplanes they developed

really fell flat and both performance, safety and suitability in aircraft carrier operations.

They really needed to hit a home run with their next aircraft project.

And that was the Regulus I.

In 1945, right after World War 2,

the U.S. Navy realized it had a need for the
delivery of the new atomic weapons that were

coming into development.

They felt that the slow flying bombers would be far too vulnerable.

And they also wanted a system that they could deploy either on submarines or

smaller ships or aircraft carriers.

Regulus was deployed from 1955 to 1964 on

several aircraft carriers, heavy cruisers and of course, submarines like Growller,

which is on display here at Intrepid.

Designated “SSM-N-8a” by the Navy,

the Regulus 1 was designed to carry 3,000 pound nuclear warhead,

fly at subsonic speeds at an altitude of 30,000 feet, and had a range of 500 miles.

J-33 turbo jet engines powered the missile, while two solid rocket boosters

firing for just a few seconds lifted it clear of the launch platform.

During underwater opperations, the missiles were stored in a watertight
compartment called the missile hangar.

That’s where I’m standing now. To launch the missiles, they’d have to be rolled

out on these tracks, the wings unfolded, the guidance system set, the aircraft fueled

It was quite a cumbersome operation.

Operational control of the missile was through a radio signal from the

submarine’s missile control room.

The crew then had to remain in radio contact with
the missile through out its flight to the target.

This process revealed the sub’s location

and left it dangerously exposed to attack.

The Regulus 1 was really just an interim solution.

The more advanced Regulus 2, was developed, which would’ve had twice the range

and a more advanced control system.

But it was canceled in 1958 in favor of the more capable Polaris missile.

The Polaris ballistic missile would have been able to been fired

from the submarine while it was still submerged.

This way it could shoot the missile without being detected.

For more Behind the Scenes videos, visit IntrepidMuseum.org