SSP Celebrates the Command’s 70th Birthday

20 November 2025

From Thomas Jones

For seventy years, Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) has produced some of the nation’s most potent defenses, deterring foreign aggressors through the development and deployment of strategic weapons systems. Originally established with the goal of developing the first-ever submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the command’s legacy of unprecedented engineering achievements and extraordinary program leadership has since established SSP as the preeminent leg of the nation’s strategic triad.

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On November 17^th, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower directed the Secretary of the Navy to establish the Special Projects Office (SPO), with the goal of developing, designing, and testing the first-ever SLBM. Rear Adm. William “Red” Raborn, tasked as the first director of SPO, was faced with the extraordinary task of delivering the first SLBM system within five years. Two days before SPO’s fifth anniversary, the USS George Washington departed Charleston on patrol, carrying the world’s first generation of SLBMs, the Polaris A1 missile.

In 1968, SPO was redesignated as the Strategic Systems Project Office (SSPO), and in 1987 the name was again changed to what it is today. For nearly 50 years, Bill Carritte, as both a civil servant and a contractor, has worked in many roles across SSPO and SSP. A wealth of knowledge himself, he has spent over a decade putting together the full history of the command.

“SSP was established at a novel point in time, only ten years after the end of the second world war. The US and Russia were in a big competition over who could create the most atomic bombs, and in the 1950s, a study was done that suggested that putting those atomic bombs on top of rockets might be more efficient,” Carritte said. “The Navy responded to this suggestion with the unthinkable, developing three missile systems and building 41 submarines to carry those missiles in only 10 years.”

These three missiles were the Polaris A1, A2, and A3, formerly known as Polaris A, B, and C. “When I first joined the SSP family in 1977, the Polaris A1 and A2 were already history,” Carritte said. “A3, the Poseidon C3, and the Trident C4 missiles were all big programs during my early years with the program.”

Six years after Carritte started his career in the program, he moved to SSP headquarters to support the initial development of the Trident II D5 strategic weapon system. “I’m fortunate that I’ve been here for nearly the entire development of the Trident II system. Developed during a time where the politics surrounding nuclear weapons were uncertain, SSP never stopped improving upon its systems.”

Over time, the political environment in which SSP developed these weapon systems shifted. The overall mission of the command, to be the nation’s premier provider of cost effective, safe, and secure sea-based deterrent solutions to the warfighter, never wavered, but the methods by which it accomplished that mission changed.

“SSP was established by people who lived through World War II. Later on, the command was manned by people who had spent years during the Cold War seeing an ever-present threat on the horizon,” Carritte said. “When the Berlin Wall fell, all of that war-footing changed, and after the Trident II was deployed shortly thereafter SSP switched to a sustainment mode.”

During this sustainment period, SSP’s mission was focused on maintaining current capabilities while combatting technological obsolescence. Following two decades of this sustainment footing, the need for SSP to develop began anew, and the command once again combined sustainment and development requirements.

One of SSP’s priorities in this hybrid culture is the continued development of the Trident II strategic weapon system (SWS), and in 2012, the first test flight of a Trident II D5 Life Extension (D5LE) missile took place. This iteration of the missile, while a comparative blip in the overall development of the Trident II system, paved the way for the next generation of Trident II missiles. In 2019, SSP stood up the Trident II D5 Life Extension 2 (D5LE2). The D5LE2 system is the product of lessons learned through the development of the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident missiles. Each of these missiles required ground-breaking innovations to produce, and today, just like in years past, the critical work done by industry, government, and military personnel ensures that the Navy’s strategic weapons systems are prepared to deliver peace through strength at any moment and endure through 2084.

Carritte, who plans to continue SSP’s historical efforts for the foreseeable future, says that his time with the command has been remarkable. “Now, looking back at what I thought were the most important tasks or assignments in the world at the time, I realize that they’re really all these minor things that simply act as building blocks for the rest of your career. You don’t appreciate the value of these experiences while you’re collecting them, but those building blocks let you do grander and grander things as time moves on,” Carritte said. “It’s been a wonderful career, and I’m hoping to leave behind a legacy of my experiences and of the history that I was a part of. Just like I’ve learned from my own history, I want to teach future members of the SSP family to learn from prior experiences, both their own and SSP’s.” Carritte said.

Today, SSP is focused on supporting the warfighter through acquisition excellence as the command responsible for sustaining the strategic weapon system (SWS) on the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) and supporting the integration of the D5LE weapon system on the new Columbia-class SSBNs. Looking to the future, SSP is integral to nuclear triad modernization with the development of the D5LE2 SWS and creating regional strike capabilities with the development of the nuclear sea launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) and the non-nuclear hypersonic conventional prompt strike system (CPS).

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SSP Celebrates the Command’s 70th Birthday

From Thomas Jones