On this day in 1959 the US Navy launched the USS George Washington, the world's first operational submarine to carry nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. The following month, the submarine conducted a successful test of the Polaris weapons system. In its 25-year career, the George Washington undertook 55 patrols in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Nuclear-armed submarines remain a potent threat and deterrent because they are mobile and difficult to detect.
