Weapons of the Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine Fleet, (left to right): Polaris A1, Polaris A2, Polaris A3, Poseidon, Trident I and Trident II. "The original FBM submarine force consisted of 41 submarines, authorized from 1957 through 1963 and delivered between 1959 and 1967. The first two classes, the George Washington class and the Ethan Allen class, consisted of 10 submarines that carried the three generations of the Polaris. The next 31 FBM submarines of the Lafayette class were all originally constructed to carry the Polaris but were converted from 1969 through 1976 to carry the Poseidon C3 missile. Subsequently, 12 James Madison- and Benjamin Franklin-class submarines were back-fitted to carry the Trident I C4 from 1978 through 1981. The last of the original 41 SSBNs were retired upon the return of USS Mariano G. Vallejo (SSBN-658) from her final patrol on April 2, 1994."Forty-one for Freedom