Long Beach Naval Shipyard - Projects Polaris, Poseidon & Sealab
During the years following the Second World War and the Korean War, the facilities at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, located in Long Beach, California, were used to facilitate a number of joint Navy and civilian scientist research and design projects. These projects undertaken at Long Beach Naval Shipyard produced two large missile systems and an underwater laboratory, each of which would have a lasting effect on the state of scientific research and warfare conducted by representatives of the United States.
The first of these projects was called Polaris UGM-27. In the years leading up to the 1960s, engineers for the Lockheed Company at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard began the design and construction of the Polaris UGM-27-Polaris, for short. Build during the years of fear and paranoia during the Cold War, Polaris was a large missile which could be launched from land or remotely, from a submarine. The large missile Polaris was intended to serve as the Navy's contribution to the United States nuclear weapon program, which was the subject of great expansion and refinement during the Cold War years. After being constructed at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, the first Polaris active Polaris missile was test-launched from a submarine near Cape Canaveral in 1960.
The Polaris missile could be launched from a submerged submarine, affording the submarine a measure of protection during combat, which was never possible before use of the Polaris missile. Navy commanders hoped that this asset-along with the Polaris missile's range of 1000 nautical miles-would strengthen the United States military's arsenal designated to combat nuclear missile attacks. Under a sales agreement signed in the mid-1960s, many submarines under the command of the United Kingdom were also equipped with Polaris missiles.
During the years following the advent of construction and refinement of the Polaris, researchers and engineers at Long Beach Naval Shipyard began work on another project. This project, called Sealab I, involved the design and construction of an underground laboratory, housed within a mobile, submarine-like structure. The first experiments with this craft, constructed from railway parts and large cylinders, were brief, and halted shortly after they began, due to an impending tropical storm. Later refinements of the first project-Sealab II and III-were designed and constructed at Long Beach Naval Base and included several improvements upon the first design. The second Sealab, for instance, had working showers and refrigeration for foodstuffs.
Sealab was designed to facilitate research into possible methods for rescuing seamen from compromised submarines. Spending 15 days under the sea at a time, researchers and scientists experimented with a variety of new tools in a pressurized, undersea environment. Researchers were also eventually able to study the physiological and psychological effects of high pressures and isolation, leading this field of research into new and unexplored depths, so to speak. While these experiments were very successful in this respect, their successes came with tragedy. During the third Sealab project, a member of the crew died after the air supply on which the Sealab researchers depended was ostensibly sabotaged.
Another major scientific and military project conducted at Long Beach Naval Shipyard was the Poseidon project, the successor project to the Polaris missile system constructed at the facility previously. The Poseidon was developed by Lockheed at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, and it was also designed to counter enemy submarines, aircrafts, and other conveyors of nuclear weaponry. Officially titled the Poseidon UGW-73, this missile could also be launched from a submerged submarine, but reflected some major advances in technology and design over the Polaris, such as a far greater strike range, at more than 2,500 nautical miles. It was not intended as a first strike weapon, but rather it was designed to compromise small soft targets, so that heavy bombers could approach enemy territories with relative safety. Its first submerged test launch took place in 1970, and following this date, more than 600 Poseidon missiles were manufactured before the technology improved upon in 1968.
After these projects were successfully completed, in 1974, reorganization of west coast naval bases resulted in the demotion of status for the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, which now served only as a location for naval support activities. This change was later repealed in 1979, and the facilities were upgraded to the Naval Base status. Throughout the 1980s, the facilities were used to renovate at least two large battleships, after which time a lull in shipbuilding demand led the Navy to defer many thousands of shipyard workers to other bases along the west coast.
With a yearly payroll of nearly $145 million and a responsibility for over 100 acres of property equally to a lease rate of more than $10 million a year, it was only a matter of time before the facilities were closed down. The Long Beach Naval Shipyard was officially closed down in 1997.
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