The History of the USS Hallibut

USS Hallibut was commissioned in 1959 as the US Navy's first ever ballistic missile submarine. She and her sister submarines led the first ever deterrence patrols, which would become a hallmark of Cold War nuclear tensions. But by the mid-1960s they had been leapfrogged by the far more potent and capable Polaris-1 ballistic missiles. A two-year, $70 million retrofit began in 1965 with an onboard UNIVAC computer that allows scientists on board to launch and control undersea drones. The divers for Operation Ivy Bells could stay in the pressure chamber in between dives, breathing a newly developed gas mixture much more suitable for work deep underwater.