History Compiled by Ewa Historian John Bond
Naval Submarine Base Bangor – Where The SSBN’s Are
Everything shown here is from public government sources and not classified.
Almost everyone there knows about it.
Naval Submarine Base Bangor is a former submarine base of the United States Navy that was merged with Naval Station Bremerton into Naval Base Kitsap in 2004. Naval Base Kitsap includes the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific (SWFPAC) which provides maintenance, calibration, missile assembly/test, spare parts, and spare nuclear warhead storage for the UGM-133 Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles carried by the nuclear submarines.
This Trident submarine base is the sole one for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, with the Trident submarine base at Kings Bay, Georgia, for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet being the only other one.
This is the maintenance facility to service the Navy “boomer” missile submarines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Submarine_Base_Bangor
Commissioned as POLARIS Missile Facility Pacific (POMFPAC) in 1964, the POLARIS A3 missile facility was in full production and providing the Fleet with high-quality missiles by December of that year. Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific (SWFPAC) provides assembly, storage, checkout, onload and offload of Trident missiles; ensures custody, accountability and control of nuclear weapons and material; publishes and maintains START procedures and conducts START inspections; and provides technical engineering services for guidance, missile, and launcher support equipment.
This is a “special weapons” hangar facility to service the missiles of the Navy missile submarines
The Marine Corps Security Forces Battalion Bangor has secured the ballistic missile submarines and associated infrastructure since before it was specifically designated a security unit, at company size, in October 1978.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/bangor.htm
Navy plans called for the POLARIS FBM submarines to be operating in the Pacific. DoD announced, on 23 April 1962, the selection of various POLARIS support facilities in the Pacific and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, was selected as the FBM submarine overhaul facility; the Naval Ammunition Depot at Bangor, Washington, was selected for the POLARIS missile assembly facility; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was chosen as the location of the crew training facility at West Loch Naval Ammunition Depot.
The primary high secure double fenced special weapons storage area is in the center of the image
Construction of the $12.5 million facility at Bangor began in March 1963. On 1 September 1963, the missile assembly facility was established in a development status and on 11 September 1964, POLARIS Missile Facility, Pacific (POMFPAC) was commissioned at the Naval Ammunition Depot, Bangor, Washington.
These are some of ammunition magazines that are not behind double fencing
Bangor is located on the Kitsap Peninsula on the shores of Hood Canal. The base included 7,676 acres of land, 5,000 of which are wooded. Bangor is the natural home for numerous wildlife. The Olympic Mountains provide a scenic backdrop for the base.
https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/TRFB/ The Delta Pier at Bangor, so named because of its triangular configuration, can support five SSBNs at one time. It has one of the largest drydocks built by the Navy and is the only drydock in the world constructed parallel to the shoreline.
Navy Builds Underground Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility; Seattle Busses Carry Warning
https://fas.org/blogs/security/2016/06/pacific-ssbn-base/
The US Navy has quietly built a new $294 million underground nuclear weapons storage complex at the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific (SWFPAC), a high-security base in Washington that stores and maintains the Trident II ballistic missiles and their nuclear warheads for the strategic submarine fleet operating in the Pacific Ocean.
The SWFPAC and the eight Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) homeported at the adjacent Bangor Submarine Base are located only 20 miles (32 kilometers) from downtown Seattle. The SWFPAC and submarines are thought to store more than 1,300 nuclear warheads with a combined explosive power equivalent to more than 14,000 Hiroshima bombs.
A similar base with six SSBNs is located at Kings Bay in Georgia on the US east coast, which houses the SWFLANT (Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic) that appears to have a dirt-covered warhead storage facility instead of the underground complex built at SWFPAC. Of the 14 SSBNs in the US strategic submarine fleet, 12 are considered operational with 288 ballistic missiles capable of carrying 2,300 warheads. Normally 8-10 SSBNs are loaded with missiles carrying approximately 1,000 warheads.
To bring public attention to the close proximity of the largest operational nuclear stockpile in the United States, the local peace group Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action has bought advertisement space on 14 transit buses. The busses will carry the posters for the next eight weeks. FAS is honored to have assisted the group with information for its campaign.
The US Navy describes the complex as “a reinforced concrete, underground, multi-level re-entry body processing and storage facility” with “hardened floors, and hardened load-bearing walls and roof.” Glen Milner at the Ground Zero Center helped locate some of the budget documents. Other construction details provided by the navy further describe the complex as:
A 16,000-m2 [180,000 square feet] multi-level, underground, hardened, blast-resistant, reinforced concrete structure, with approximate dimensions of 110 meters long by 82 meters wide. Two tunnels (approximately 122 meters long, 6 meters wide, and 6 meters tall) will provide heavy vehicle access to and from the LAPSC. An aboveground portion of the facility will provide administrative and utility support spaces. Special features of the facility include: power-operated physical security and blast-resistant doors, TEMPEST shielded rooms, seven (7) overhead bridge cranes (2 ton capacity), three (3) elevators, lightning protection system, grounding system, liquid waste collection/retention system, emergency air purge system, fire protection systems, and multiple HVAC systems. This project will also provide a new 1000 kW emergency generator (enclosed within a new hardened, reinforced concrete structure), two security guard towers, lightning protection, utilities, and other site improvements. The existing Limited Area perimeter fence, security zone, and patrol roads will be expanded to encompass the new LAPSC.
