USS Barbero SSG-317, US first strategic deterrent submarine   USS Barbero SS-317 was a Balao class submarine, displacing 2,390ton submerged and measuring 311`9 feet long. Laid down by the Electric Boat Company, Groton, CT on March 25, 1943; launched December 12, 1943 and commissioned on April 29, 1944. Barbero`s war operations span the period from August 9, 1944 until January 2, 1945, during which time she completed two war patrols. She is officially credited with sinking three Japanese merchant ships totaling 9126 tons while patrolling in the Java and South China Seas. From 1945 to 1955 she was only partly in active service as an experimental boat evaluating her capabilities as a cargo carrier, following conversion to a cargo submarine-reclassified SSA-317. On February 1st, 1955 Barbero entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard for her second conversion. Her designation was changed to SSG-317 (Guided Missile Submarine) on October 25, 1955 and she was recommissioned. She operated off the coast of California until April 1956 when she transited the Panama Canal and joined the Atlantic Fleet She was decommissioned and struck from navy list on June 30 1964. The first US strategic deterrent submarines carried two Regulus missiles in a watertight hangar on deck abaft the fin. The cruise missile could only be launched while the boat was on the surface; final preparations for launch took place on deck out side the hangar. A further hazard was that if the hangar accidentally flooded the boat would `turn turtle`. Back to History Index   Image Country Year Description Central African Rep. 2000 1874-1999 125th anni` de U.P.U. (miniature sheet), Regulus-1 missile launched by USS Barbero SSG-317, and a Soviet SSBN