Do we still need nuclear submarines?
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union targeted each other with a full array of nuclear weapons. And within the arsenal of nuclear weapons was the nuclear submarine. Though it wasn’t technically a weapon itself, the nuclear sub was an incredibly lethal machine, carrying ballistic missiles around the world — even beneath the polar ice caps. What’s more, these subs could circumvent the oceans virtually unnoticed, hidden until the time came to launch hundreds of missiles and strike enemy territory. Nuclear submarines get the “nuclear” moniker from their nuclear reactor power source, not from the weaponry they carry. During the Cold War, nuclear submarines were the third part of a strategic deterrence triad that included land-based missile silos and airpla
