Navy Warns Off Greenpeace Before Second Successful Trident Launch

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The crew of the nuclear submarine Tennessee successfully launched a Trident 2 missile Wednesday after the Navy warned Greenpeace anti-nuclear protesters to stay out of the safety zone, the Navy reported.

The launch was the second straight successful undersea test-firing of the Navy’s newest and deadliest nuclear weapon, keeping it on track for deployment next March. Two of the first three submarine tests failed.

The Tennessee was cruising submerged in the Atlantic about 50 miles offshore when the 44-foot, $26.5-million missile burst out of a launch tube, broke the surface, ignited and hurled a dummy warhead to an undisclosed ocean target several thousand miles away.

The Navy reported several minutes later that the test was successful.

“Another great day for the Navy,” said Vice Admiral Roger F. Bacon, commander of the Atlantic submarine fleet.

A 60-foot Greenpeace ketch, the Mondeivitano, briefly penetrated the launch safety zone but withdrew after a Navy ship warned it to move away. As a precaution, six Coast Guard cutters patrolled the perimeter of the 5,000-yard safety area around the submarine.

“We made our point that we have a right to protest in international waters,” Greenpeace spokeswoman Shannon Fagan said. “We will take our fight to Congress in an effort to have this missile system canceled. The world can no longer afford the waste of precious resources on weapons of mass destruction like the Trident 2.”

Greenpeace protesters tried to halt a Trident 2 launch on Dec. 4 by sending the 190-foot vessel MV Greenpeace, with 25 people aboard, into the Tennessee’s safety zone. A Navy ship intercepted the vessel and damaged it by repeatedly bumping it and using fire hoses to shoot water down the smokestacks, stopping the engines.