Polaris A3 SSM, NATO MLF, 1963/64

Of course, popular entertainers had their say as well, with Tom Lehrer producing this gem in 1965:

MLF Lullaby

A considerable amount of commotion was stirred up during the past year over the prospect of a multilateral force, known to the headline writers as MLF. Much of this discussion took place during the baseball season, so the Chronicle may not have covered it, but it did get a certain amount of publicity; and the basic idea was that a bunch of us nations, the good guys, would get together on a joint nuclear deterrent force, including our current friends, like France, and our traditional friends, like Germany. Here’s a song about that, called the MLF Lullaby:

Sleep, baby, sleep, in peace may you slumber,
No danger lurks, your sleep to encumber.
We’ve got the missiles, peace to determine,
And one of the fingers on the button will be German.

Why shouldn’t they have nuclear warheads?
England says no, but they all are soreheads.
I say a bygone should be a bygone,
Let’s make peace the way we did in Stanleyville and Saigon.

Once all the Germans were warlike and mean,
But that couldn’t happen again.
We taught them a lesson in 1918
And they’ve hardly bothered us since then.

So, sleep well, my darling, the sandman can linger.
We know our buddies won’t give us the finger.
Heil – hail – the Wehrmacht, I mean the Bundeswehr,
Hail to our loyal ally!
M L F
Will scare Brezhnev.
I hope he is half as scared as I!

The comments about Italy, et al, getting their own nuclear weapons invokes this other of his songs:

Who’s Next

One of the big news items of the past year concerned the fact that China, which we call Red China, exploded a nuclear bomb, which we called a device. Then Indonesia announced that it was gonna have one soon, and proliferation became the word of the day. Here’s a song about that.

First we got the bomb and that was good,
‘Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that’s O.K.,
‘Cause the balance of power’s maintained that way!
Who’s next?

France got the bomb, but don’t you grieve,
‘Cause they’re on our side, I believe.
China got the bomb, but have no fears;
They can’t wipe us out for at least five years!
Who’s next?

Then Indonesia claimed that they
Were gonna get one any day.
South Africa wants two, that’s right:
One for the black and one for the white!
Who’s next?

Egypt’s gonna get one, too,
Just to use on you know who.
So Israel’s getting tense,
Wants one in self defense.
“The Lord’s our shepherd,” says the psalm,
But just in case, we better get a bomb!
Who’s next?

Luxembourg is next to go
And, who knows, maybe Monaco.
We’ll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb!
Who’s next, who’s next, who’s next?
Who’s next?

Album:
That Was the Year That Was – Reprise Records R/RS 6179, 1965:
also: Pye Records (U.K.) same catalog number, 1965

You do have to wonder if the stillborn MLF concept didn’t guide Soviet Naval thinking. So many early classes of Soviet SSN and SSGN were entirely ill equipped to be used against NATO SSBNs, but seemed to be entirely focused on anti-surface capabilities. Perhaps the Soviets payed a little too much attention to the MLF concept, which would go a long way toward explaining some of the shortcomings of their submarines as ASW platforms.

In the end, MLF was bad concept, both in practical and political terms. Italy had started talking about their own SSBNs and had actually worked on developing a missile equivalent in size and performance to the early Polaris. MLF might have cause greater nuclear proliferation, with countries such as Italy and West Germany following the lead of France and the UK in creating independent deterrents, which inevitably would have raised tensions with the Soviets.

Its closer to the truth to say that the surface-vessel Polaris was never really something the USN was interested in other than as a method of demonstrating the missiles ‘versatility’ and ‘strategic flexibility’ to give it more clout in the USAF/ US Army/ USN strategic weapons standoff.

Ultimately it was successful as the USN got their system through – which they promptly based in subs as was always intended. What they got that wasnt intended was to foot the bill for its development solely out of their budget!.

The vessel in question in the initial post was a Charles F Adams class DDG formerly the USS Biddle (DDG-5) and she did undertake an MLF cruise, without Polaris, that brought together a crew from, allegedly, 7 NATO nations. The legend goes it was even considered a successful experiment!.

To follow in the academic style that this thread is following, take a look at:

John B. Hattendorf, Naval Policy and Strategy in the Mediterranean: Past, Present and Future, published by Taylor & Francis, 2000, p.206

This passage talks about Italy’s ambitions to field a fleet (their ambition was for no fewer than 12-15!) of modest sized warships, each carrying four or six missiles. This was, of course, too expensive, but as Storch mentions, Guissepe Garibaldi (the cruiser) was modified for tests of Polaris, and Vittorio Veneto was actually built to carry Polaris missiles.

It is interesting to note that this was similar to the situation in the US, where the USS Long Beach (CGN-9) was fitted with space for four Polaris missile tubes. The fact that this never actually materialised is not a great surprise, especially for the Americans, since they had plenty of ballistic missile submarines, and the Italians didn’t get the missiles. The other major factor in thinking must presumably have been the concern for the vulnerability of surface warships. A ballistic missile sub basically sits on the bottom of the ocean, avoiding detection, and only accepts the risk of detection when necessary. In contrast, a surface ship can be tracked at all times with the right equipment, and thus could be neutralised pre-emptively.

Italian involvement

Ok, i know that italy was really interested in the project..
The cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi of the ’30’s was modified with 4 polaris tube and was used for some test lauch.
The following flag ship Vittorio Veneto was built with space to take some polaris tube but that space was used as a bulk storage, because the program was already cancelled; altough italy devoleped an icbm the alpha rocket that performed some sucessful launch in the 70’s (lauch performed on land not on ship altough there were program for a submarine use of them).
If you search on wiki you will find some info on the italian ship, in italian of course.

http://www.aereimilitari.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=2369

If i’ll find more i will post it..