Why is the Nuclear Triad needed if nuclear subs can’t be realistically countered?
In: Technology
Nuclear subs have low capacity, you can’t rely on them alone to completely obliterate a nuclear superpower’s military capabilities.
They’re mostly there for the “second strike” capability they offer.
While pop media always focuses heavily on the MAD/nuclear winter scenario where a nuclear exchange occurs and then society immediately ends forever, the nuclear powers don’t truly plan/expect this to happen.
Modern cities are glass and steel and concrete, they’re not going to burn like Hiroshima did and won’t generate the kind of ash clouds required to blot out the sun and collapse the global ecosystem. Military plans for world war 3 fully expected the war to have a day 2 and a week 2 and a year 2 involving more conventional weapons and tactical nuclear exchanges.
The nuclear subs are here for that – when all your launch sites and airfields have been nuked and your conventional nuclear capabilities are now heavily degraded.
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