41 for Freedom refers to the US Navy Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) submarines from the George Washington, Ethan Allen, Lafayette, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin classes.

The 1972 SALT I Treaty limited the number of American submarine-launched ballistic missile tubes to 656, based on the total missile tubes of the forty-one submarines, in line with the treaty's goal of limiting strategic nuclear weapons to the number already existing.

[3] The United States had deployed nuclear weapons aboard submarines for the purpose of deterrence since 1959, using the SSM-N-8 Regulus cruise missile.

The intention was that the main element of the US Navy's contribution to the strategic nuclear deterrent be a ballistic missile armed submarine.

The "41 for Freedom" nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) were armed with submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) to create a deterrent force against the threat of nuclear war with any foreign power threatening the United States during the Cold War.