Benjamin Franklin Class SSGN Conversion
Originally built as part of the 41 For Freedom program, the Benjamin Franklin Class of ballistic missile submarines formed the backbone of the American SSBN force for much of the 60s, 70s and 80s alongside the James Madison and Lafayette Classes. Following the signing of the SALT II treaties under the Carter Administration, the Franklin Class was one of the first on the chopping block for strategic arms reduction. Despite losing their Polaris A3 nuclear missiles, the Franklin Class SSBNs were not yet done, with the ships considered for conversion to Poisedon standards. Under the Reagan Administration, it was considered to replace their Polaris tubes with 7-cell Tomahawk rotary launchers, giving the ships a formidable armament of 112 TLAM or TASM missiles. Ultimately, however, the decision would be made to not go through with these SSGN conversions, and the Franklins would serve as standard SSBNs until the end of their service lives. But what if the Franklins got a new large anti-ship missile? What if as a response to the Soviet P-700 Granit, the US would develop their own counterpart, a spiritual successor to the Regulus perhaps? Enter the UGM-111A, UGM-111B, and UGM-111N, dubbed the Zeus. The Zeus is a large, supersonic, anti-ship missile specifically designed to strike and destroy Soviet surface action groups dominated by large cruisers and aircraft carriers, as an alternative to aircraft based assaults. All boats of the class would recieve this conversion and be redesignated to SSGN throughout the early 1980s. Despite sacrificing traditional nuclear ballistic missiles, a nuclear-tipped, extended-range, ballistic variant of the Zeus, the UGM-111N, would be retained in 4 of the 16 onboard tubes, allowing the Franklins to still serve as nuclear deterrent boats alongside their newfound anti-ship role.
Another gift for you all using the same missiles I introduced in the Cambridge mod, now with a sub launched variant. Unlike my other mods, this one does not need NTU, and with that, I’ll leave it here. Thank you all for the support and enjoy!
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
