THE MISSION

Strategic Weapons Facility, Atlantic (SWFLANT) provides strategic missiles and strategic weapons system (SWS) support to the fleet ballistic missile fleet.

SWFLANT is responsible for assembling the D-5 missile and processing missile guidance and launcher subsystem components. Components are shipped to Kings Bay from more than 1,800 suppliers and subcontractors throughout the country.

This command maintains a work force of approximately 150 military personnel, 150 government employees and more than 650 contractor personnel. SWFLANT's contractors include Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Vitro Corp.

The work force consists of engineers, administration and management personnel, supply and accounting technicians, maintenance personnel, equipment operators, and safety and quality assurance inspectors.

Construction of the 24 buildings in the SWFLANT complex began in 1985 and was completed in 1994. The facilities include administration buildings, supply warehouses, a calibration laboratory, processing buildings (including two missile assembly buildings), two vertical missile packaging buildings (where the D-5 missile is made ready for delivery to the submarine), inspection buildings and explosive handling wharves (EHW).

EHW-1, which is 144 feet tall, is the tallest building in Camden County and rises at its pinnacle 161 feet above the water. A second EHW was completed in 1994. In addition, SWFLANT has 66 missile motor magazines and four small ordnance magazines in its 800-acre complex for storage of rocket motors, missiles and other ordnance components.

The D-5 missile has three rocket motor stages powered by solid-fuel propellant and weighs more than 130,000 pounds. The D-5 is the latest in a line of fleet ballistic missiles, which began with the Polaris A-1 in 1960. The D-5 has a greater range, payload, and accuracy than its predecessors, since it incorporates many state-of-the-art technological advances in electronics and rocketry. The D-5 is the heart of the Trident weapons system, which also includes the submarine, support equipment and shore facilities. The system is designed to be America's seaborne deterrent to strategic war well into the next century.

SWFLANT is the only D-5 missile processing facility in the world.