My husband was a submariner. He has his dolphins. He says this was a launch. As far as I am concerned, considering he has been aboard a boat which has launched one in certification tests (No payload of course, it was a TEST.) I am utterly CERTAIN he knows more about these things than anyone on the news other than another submariner rated for Boomers.
This was a launch.
That'd take a ginormous submarine to tote around.
What you have to remember is the wide part is furthest away. The smaller part is coming toward the camera.
Too many people fail to understand that the ORIGINAL SCENE is three dimensional, but this picture isn't.