In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:
No, I've seen films of the launch; it comes out of the water straight,
then immediately pitches over and climbs at a steep angle;
There's a video of a launch he
https://wrc.navair-rdte.navy.mil/war...bs/trident.mpg

Actually, on that video it looks like it does *both*: comes out of the
water more or less straight, pitches over fairly steeply, and then
gradually straightens out as it climbs -- not all the way to vertical, but
to a considerably less dramatic tilt than the initial pitchover produced.

Could be an engine-startup transient that the guidance system then sorted
out (in particular, transient flow separation during startup is not at all
rare, and can briefly produce large unwanted thrust vectoring), some sort
of guidance/control-startup transient, or a deliberate "get a bit of
horizontal distance from the sub immediately" maneuver.
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