These are miscellaneous parts from a cross section model of a U.S. ballistic missile submarine and four of its launch tubes. The model has one cutaway launch tube is cutaway, showing a Poseidon C-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). Developed by Lockheed as a successor to the first-generation Polaris SLBM, Poseidon C-3s were two-stage, solid-fuel missiles with a range of approximately 5,300 km (3,300 miles). Deployed from 1971 to the early 1990s, 16 missiles were carried on an individual ballistic missile submarine, with each missile having up to 14 independently-targetable nuclear warheads.
This model was made by Exhibits of California, Inc. and donated by Lockheed Missiles & Space to NASM in 1973.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.