Compiled by Ewa Historian John Bond
West Loch Nuclear Weapons ( AKA Special Weapons ) Storage began in 1955 – With the Regulus Missile
Special Weapons and Eisenhower's "New Look"- the Regulus I Missile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSM-N-9_Regulus_II
The Regulus II cruise missile was a supersonic guided missile armed with a nuclear warhead, intended for launching from surface ships and submarines
By about the mid-1950s the post-Korean War drawdown of conventional weapons at West Loch seemed to fit with President Eisenhower's "New Look" national security policy which emphasized a reliance on tactical nuclear weapons while maintaining a modestly sized military that was economically justified and supportable by the nation's economy.
For West Loch this meant a series of facilities that would support the Regulus I cruise missile, a nuclear-capable weapon that became operational on surface ships in 1955. The missile was deployed from a
submarine platform. The USS Tunny (SS 282) arrived in May 1957 at Pearl Harbor and Guided Missile Group (GMG) 91, was headquartered at the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base. Due to the high cost of the missiles (approximately one million dollars each), budgetary pressure, and the emergence of the SLBM, the Regulus missile program was terminated on 19 November 1958.
The Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile. As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1996
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UGM-27_Polaris
Storage support facilities for the new nuclear Regulus I missile aboard the submarines home-ported at
Pearl Harbor were initially (in 1956) to have been constructed at Lualualei. But by early 1957 the location for the permanent support facilities for Regulus I, including magazines and missile checkout and assembly facilities, had been changed to NAVMAG West Loch.
Drawings produced in January 1957 by the Honolulu firm of Belt, Lemmon, and Lo Architects &
Engineers indicate a planned "Guided Missile Facility" at West Loch. Belt, Lemmon, and Lo would
later work on many important buildings in Honolulu including the Hawaii State Capitol Building
(1968) and the Prince Kuhio Federal Building (1977).
This was not a secret as both local newspapers did stories about the planned new nuclear missile facilities at West Loch. "Navy to Build Rocket Fleet Here," Honolulu Advertiser, January 20, 1956, "Oahu Tabbed as Major Guided Missile Center," Honolulu Star Bulletin, April 9, 1957.
The Regulus I Guided Missile Facility complex at West Loch contained five facilities to support the missiles: Facility 440, Test and Checkout Building, the principal missile assembly and check-out area;
Facility 441, Ready Issue Facility, and a holding area. Facility 442, Igniter Test Building, no longer extant; and Facility 443, Transformer Station.
The main component of the Regulus I complex, Facility 440, contained checkout bays for three missiles. The bays each measured about 15' wide x 37' long, which would be of sufficient size to hold a missile with its wings folded, when its width was 21'-0" with wings extended. The fuselage length of the missile was 32'-2" and the overall operational length increased to 41 '-6" with the addition of a thin projecting pitot tube on the front of the missile.
The Igniter Test Building (Facility 442) was located about 600' from Facility 440 & 441. Also shown on the site plans for the Regulus I complex at West Loch were three very large areas, roughly rectangular, measuring from about 400' x 400' to about 500' x 600' and labeled "depressed area[s]" on the plan. It is not known what these areas were to be used for. They appear to each be surrounded by a berm with their entry roadways shielded by having the road penetrate through the berm in a shallow angle. The entries were also flanked by tapered sections of the berm, as if to prevent a blast from escaping laterally from the depressed area.
The original site plan also indicates that a second set of buildings, another Test and Checkout Building with its attached Ready Issue Facility, were planned for the complex. These were never constructed.
The available 1957 plans for the Regulus I complex at West Loch do not include any provision for storage of munitions or warheads. Typically, the magazines storing nuclear warheads were located at the complexes that serviced and prepared their associated delivery systems. In the case of the Regulus I missile complex at West Loch, it is most likely that the warheads for the missiles would have been stored in magazines at NAVMAG West Loch.
The Regulus I missile was able to use two types of nuclear warheads as payload inside its 4 foot diameter fuselage; the W-5 fission warhead with a variable yield of from 6 to 120 Kt, or the W-27 thermonuclear warhead with a yield of 2Mt. The W-5 was available in two different sizes, one with a diameter of 3'-3" and other with a diameter of 3'-8"; each was 6'-4" long. The weight of the W-5 warhead varied from 2,405 lbs. to 2,600 lbs. The W-27 was of similar size, 2'-7" in diameter and 6'-3" long and weighed 2,800 lbs.
At the time the Regulus I complex at West Loch was being planned in January 1957, nuclear fission weapons design was transitioning from an open pit to a sealed pit type. The older open pit type weapons, including the W-5 warhead which was carried in the Regulus I missile, had a central core (or pit) of fissile material, (usually Plutonium-239) that was stored separately from the rest of the warhead and only assembled very shortly before use.
This separate storage was necessary because of two factors; first, the radiation from the pit degraded other critical components of the warhead, and second, the polonium metal initiator at the center of the pit (which provided neutrons to reliably start the nuclear chain reaction when detonated) had a very short half life which would cause it to lose potency if too long a time passed between its manufacture and use.
This open pit design of all pre-1957 weapons meant that besides providing storage magazines for the main warhead, provisions must be made for nearby storage of their pits of fissionable material, again likely this was in West Loch's magazines. In open pit design weapons, the pits were inserted onto the warhead just prior to launch, so Facility 440 would not have been used for this purpose. The pits of the W-5 warheads on Regulus I missiles were more likely to have been specified to be inserted while the missiles were on the submarines, just before the missiles would be fired.
In aircraft weapons, this arming of the warhead by inserting the pit during flight (either manually or mechanically) was known as in-flight-insertion (IFI). It is not known what type of pit design the W-27 thermonuclear warhead utilized, but its dates of manufacture, from August 1958 to September 1959, and its thermonuclear mechanism suggest that it was a sealed pit design which would be stored as a
complete assembled warhead.
At least two years passed between the preparation of plans for the Regulus Missile complex at West Loch (January 1957) and its construction (completion ca. 1959). During this time it is not clear that the facilities were even funded as late as December 1958. That month a 14th Naval District prioritized list of construction projects describes it as a "Guided Missile Support Facility (Secret)" for fiscal year 1961 and indicates its estimated cost at $1,295,000.
During the time between the arrival of a Guided Missile Group (GMG 91) at Pearl Harbor in May 1957 and the completion of the Regulus I complex at West Loch it is most likely that some type of temporary support facility for the missiles was set up at NAVMAG Lualualei. Possibly with the nuclear warheads
and pits stored at cave magazines at Kipapa Gulch, Waikele.
Regulus I missile patrols ended in 1964 and the missile was removed from patrol service. Shortly after, in February 1965, drawings were prepared for a 74'-0" x 85'-0" addition to Facility 440 that consisted of four 15' wide test cells. These test cells had 5'-0" thick sand-filled walls along one 15' wide end and along 28'-9" of their length. They were also equipped with knockout blast panels along the opposite 15' wide end with thrust retainers near them.
This building addition is unusual, coming after the Regulus I missiles were withdrawn, but the cells might
have been used for the deactivation of the missiles. Regulus I missiles were used as target drones after they were removed from patrol service. During the period of time from their construction in 1959 and the withdrawal of the Regulus I missile from service in 1964, West loch Facilities 440, 441, 442, 443, and 444 were an important part of this crucial element of deterrence during the Cold War.
1960’s West Loch – The AntiSubmarine Rocket (ASROC) system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RUR-5_ASROC The ASROC is an anti-submarine missile in the ASROC family, currently built by Lockheed Martin for the Navy.
The original 1960 plans for Facility 453 indicate a 26'-8" x 66'-4" section of the building was designated as "Missile Test & Assembly Area." This area probably supported the Anti-Submarine Rocket (ASROC) system, the Navy's main shipboard standoff anti-submarine weapon from about 1960 (when it was equipped with the Mk 44 torpedo}.
The ASROC system used a solid fuel rocket to propel a torpedo (or a depth charge) on a ballistic trajectory to a point over the position of an enemy submarine. It had a range of 900 yards to ten miles and a speed of mach 1. When the rocket motor ended firing it was separated from the torpedo, which deployed a parachute, descended into the water and homed toward the target.
In 1965 the ASROC replaced the Mk 44 torpedo with the Mk 46. Plans prepared in August 1969 detail the alteration of Facility 440 at West Loch to a Torpedo Overhaul Facility. This conversion of the former Regulus I Test and Checkout building was accomplished to provide a dedicated building for working on the Mk 48 torpedo, which came into service in 1972.
The Mk 48 is a large weapon, 21" in diameter and 19'-0' long that carried a conventional warhead of 650 lbs. of PBXN-103 explosive. The Mk 48 torpedo is fired from submarines and is used to attack fast, deep diving nuclear submarines and high performance surface ships. In 1988 another addition was built on Facility 440 to support the Mk 48 ADCAP (Advanced Capability) torpedo.24 This torpedo was developed from the earlier Mk 48 to counter the threat of the Soviet ALFA class submarines; titanium hulled and powered by liquid metal-cooled reactors, the ALFAs could operate at a depth of 2,500' and had a top speed well in excess of 40 knots.
The Mk 48 ADCAP features enhanced guidance & control modifications and fuel flow improvements to the Otto fueled piston engine that allowed a top speed estimated at 63 knots. Also in 1988, another building at West Loch, Facility 543, was renovated for use as a Mk 46 torpedo shop. This building was built in 1977 as a torpedo preparation facility. The 1988 renovations dedicated it for use in conjunction with the Mk 46, they included; drum storage, fueling/defueling, and after body dirty room (possibly built as areas to work with the toxic Otto fuel that was used in the Mk 46 engine), supply room, concrete equipment pads, darkroom, computer room, and mechanical room.
The renovations to this building could have been designed to support the Mk 46 Mod 5 torpedo, which came into service ca. 1984 and was an extensive overhaul of previous Mk46 versions that was undertaken by the Honeywell Corp. and enabled the torpedo to attack surface ships.
West Loch and Anti-Submarine Warfare
In 1962 a complex of buildings was constructed at West Loch for another Cold War mission, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and the Mk 46 ASW torpedo. Four buildings plans for this ASW support facility were prepared in May 1960 by the firm Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall Architects and Engineers. This firm, with offices in Los Angeles and Honolulu, was responsible for many important military construction projects beginning in the mid-1950s, including fueling systems, runways, housing, recreational buildings, and missile launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Vandenberg, California.
Test of an ASROC Nuclear Warhead in 1962
The ASW support complex at West Loch included buildings to support the Mk 46 torpedo:
Facility 453, Mk 46 Checkout and Assembly building; Facility 454, Transformer building; Facility 455, Sentry Booth (no longer extant); Facility 456, Control Center and Standby Generator building (no longer extant). The buildings of this ASW support complex were located inside of a security fence that was
constructed in mid-1960, enclosing the Regulus I complex. The new Sentry Booth became the
entry point for the fenced area, and served both the new ASW and the previous Regulus I facility.
The Mk 46 torpedo supported by the ASW complex at West Loch was a conventional (nonnuclear) weapon, which used a Mk 103 warhead containing 981bs of conventional explosive, PBXN-103. This acoustic homing torpedo, designed to be launched from surface ships and aircraft, entered service in 1963 as the Mk 46 Mod 0. This variant of the torpedo featured a solid fuel motor and was produced in limited numbers because of maintenance problems with this solid fuel propulsion system.
West Loch and Special Weapons after 1979
After being associated with “special weapons” (Regulus I) from about 1959 to 1966, and then
supporting sophisticated conventional explosive torpedoes (Mk 46 & Mk 48) from about 1966
onward, a special weapons mission once again returned to West Loch ca. 1979 with the
construction of additional magazines (Facilities 490-537) and a final checkout and assembly
building (Facility 489). Although the specific “special weapons” stored and supported in these
facilities cannot be verified, it can be assumed that they were weapons deployed on the
submarines that utilized Pearl Harbor as their home port between 1979 and 1991.
During this time, the Pacific was patrolled by Navy missile submarines of the Lafayette and Benjamin Franklin classes, carrying the Poseidon ballistic missile. In the late 1970s, Poseidon ballistic missile submarines, along with the earlier Polaris ballistic missile submarines, made up one part of the U.S. nuclear triad of strategic weapons systems (which also included intercontinental ballistic missiles &
strategic bombers) that supported the important defense doctrine of mutual assured destruction
(MAD).
The Russians Tested A Ridiculously Huge 50 Megaton Bomb in 1961 That Triggered A Big Series Of US Tests In 1962 Like Operation Dominic Where A B-52 Dropped Atomic Bombs From NAS Barbers Point
The MAD doctrine was based on the theory that no nation will initiate a nuclear war if the
opposition has the ability to retaliate massively and inflict unacceptable damage. The ballistic
missile submarines, by virtue of their impregnability when deployed, were a very significant
portion of this doctrine as the uncertainty of their position ensured that they would survive a first
strike to deliver a retaliatory response with their missiles.
The Poseidon missile carried the W-68 nuclear warhead, each of which carried ten independently targetable reentry vehicles with variable yields of from 40-50 Kt. The warheads were manufactured between 1970 and 1975 and the last was retired in 1991. About 5,250 W-68 warheads were produced, making it the largest production run of any U.S. nuclear warhead.
West Loch stores Tomahawk submarine-launched cruise missiles
Another nuclear-capable missile that was deployed on submarines home-ported at Pearl Harbor is the Tomahawk submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM). This missile was first deployed in 1983 and was designed to utilize conventional or nuclear warheads, including the W-80-0, a variable-yield nuclear warhead of between 5 to 200 Kt. Production numbers of this warhead, between 1983 and 1990, was 367. The W-80-0 is about 12" wide and about 31Y2'' long. In 1984 thirteen submarines based at Pearl Harbor were equipped with Tomahawk missiles; including the USS Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Indianapolis, Bremerton, Omaha, Tunny, Cavalla, Queenfish, HawkbilI, Aspro, Tautog, and Puffer.
The Tomahawk missile itself is highly accurate and can fly hundreds of miles at low altitudes to strike. This makes it very difficult to counter by enemy forces and gives it great survivability. It came into service at a time when U.S. tactical and strategic weapons were acquiring new levels of targeting accuracy. This prompted a shift in U.S. defense policy (which only came to fruition after the end of the Cold War) away from the MAD defense philosophy to a more traditional posture of relying on the certainty of accurate strikes against military targets to deter potential enemies from attacking. “13 Pearl-Based Submarines to get Tomahawk Missiles, Honolulu Star Bulletin, July 15, I984.
In 1967, the Naval Ordnance Safety and Security Activity (NOSSA) came out with more restrictive safety standards mandating that the distance between each magazine must be greater than what is currently installed at West Loch (NAVSEA, 2017). Due to the lack of permissible net explosive weight allowed per the NOSSA standards, Navy Munitions Command East Asia Division Pearl Harbor (NMC EAD PH) has been using several magazines in Lualualei to store smaller-sized ordnance.
In January 2000 the designation Naval Magazine, Lualualei, Hawaii, was changed to Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor and opened the new headquarters building located in the West Loch Branch Ewa Beach. The name change was a result of the command’s recent headquarters move from the Lualualei Branch to Pearl Harbor’s West Loch in Ewa Beach next to Iroquois Point. Building 562 was renovated for the new Ewa Beach headquarters.
Reportedly but not verifiable was that 50 W-80-0 munitions for Tomahawk SLCM's and 40 nuclear aerial bombs (likely B-61) were stored in the West Loch Naval Magazine (NAVMAG). The headquarters move was a strategic plan to consolidate five departments and the executive staff to a single building. It is
Important to note that the West Loch NAVMAG HQ is not within the historic explosive arc ESQD.
Above image from Google Earth shows a Virginia class attack submarine at West Loch Pearl Harbor Whiskey Wharf W 4-5 loading up with 12 Tomahawks (cruise missiles) and a larger number (in green) of what are most likely anti-ship Harpoon missiles. These missiles and torpedoes are stored nearby in West Loch munitions bunkers. All of this is easily seen using Google Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia-class_submarine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpoon_(missile)
West Loch Ammunition Depot Today - NMCPAC EAD DET PH
https://dair.nps.edu/bitstream/123456789/2273/1/NPS-LM-18-023.pdf
Navy Munitions Command Pacific East Asia Division Detachment Pearl Harbor (NMCPAC EAD DET PH) headquartered in Ewa Beach, HI, on the island of Oahu, NMCPAC EAD DET PH consists of two branches: the Lualualei Branch on the western side of Oahu 35 miles northwest of Honolulu, and the West Loch Branch (West Loch and Waipio Point) located about 20 miles west of Honolulu. Combined, these facilities contain 386 magazines—large, earth covered storage facilities—with a storage capacity of approximately 98,830 short tons (NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Pearl Harbor, 2017).
Figures 1 and 2 present some of the storage magazines located on Lualualei and West Loch. The Command safely and effectively receives, stores, segregates, and issues ammunition stock for the military and other government entities. NMCPAC EAD DET PH also provides pier-side ordnance handling in the Pearl Harbor area for military and commercial vessels of all types, foreign and domestic, as well as services to other military commands at their respective sites.
Material is on/off-loaded onto a variety of ships at various locations on and around Pearl Harbor. The West Loch wharves, Pearl Harbor piers, and Ford Island are common locations for on- and off-loading material. Types of ships include various combatant ships, small boats and submarines; Navy cargo and supply ships (T-AKE and T-AOE); chartered vessels; and U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps roll-on/roll-off (RORO) vessels.
Aiea firm gets contract to dredge Pearl Harbor channel May 11, 2007 Advertiser Staff
Healy Tibbitts Builders Inc. in 'Aiea has received a $12.6 million contract to dredge West Loch Channel for the T-AKE vessel at Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor. The work will provide access and berthing facilities at Wharves W1, W2, and W3 for the T-AKE vessel. The project also provides horizontal directional drilling construction of a water line under West Loch channel and bank stabilization along the dredged shoreline along Baltimore Point. Work is expected to be completed by October 2008.
Ship coming in to load up with ammunition hits Whiskey Wharf Pier 1-2-3, circa 1980’s. The captain was relieved of his command of the ship.
The original West Loach HQ, circa early 1990’s You can see the Vitro sign as managing contractor – attached. Vitro Corporation was a major United States defense contractor which
became part of BAE Systems Inc. in 1999.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitro_Corporation
In July 1998 the British electronics conglomerate GEC plc purchased Tracor. In November 1999 GEC merged its defense arm (including Tracor) with British Aerospace to form BAE Systems. They are still running the West Loch operation as a Navy contractor.
Lots of new weapons here to fill up all of the new missile magazines
https://www.baesystems.com/en/home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSM-N-8_Regulus The SSM-N-8A Regulus or the Regulus I was a United States Navy-developed ship-and-submarine-launched, nuclear-capable turbojet-powered second generation cruise missile, deployed from 1955 to 1964. Its development was an outgrowth of U.S. Navy tests conducted with the German V-1 missile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UGM-27_Polaris The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile. As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1996.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UGM-133_Trident_II The UGM-133A Trident II, or Trident D5 is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), and can be loaded with up to 8 Mk-5 RVs with 455 kt W88 warheads, up to 14 Mk-4A RVs with 90 kt W76-1 warheads, and up to 14 Mk-4A RVs with 5–7 kt W76-2 warheads and will remain in service until 2042.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile) The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is primarily used by the United States Navy for submarine-based land-attack operations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial targets, that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of travelling at supersonic or high subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and are able to fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low-altitude trajectory.
FEED ME!
