The Nuclear Triad: Always Prepared to End the World

In 1938, the world was changed forever when nuclear fission was discovered by a group of German chemists and physicists. As news quickly spread that the nucleus of an atom could be split, and, in the process, release high levels of energy, scientists around the world immediately understood the grave implications of such a discovery. It was only 7 years after this that the first atomic bomb was developed, and just a month after the first test that two were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, unleashing destruction on a scale never before seen in human history.

In the world that emerged from the ashes of the Second World War, nuclear weapons took center stage as their immense power kept the rival superpowers from going to war, while simultaneously holding the survival of the planet on a knife’s edge.

The nuclear policy of these powers was simple, maintain the ability to annihilate the enemy, even in the event that they strike first, known as mutually assured destruction, the ultimate deterrence. But, to ensure that all of your nukes aren’t destroyed or disabled during this first strike, they need to be spread out and delivered from a variety of sources. Thus, the nuclear triad was born.

Maintained during the cold war by the United States and the Soviet Union, but today known to now be held by Russia, France, China, and India, the nuclear triad is a three-pronged military structure that enables an atomic strike at any moment by land, air, or sea.

Today we’re going to break down the details of the three faces of the nuclear triad, and how their combined existence ensures that in the event of a nuclear attack, Armageddon is all but guaranteed.

Strategic Bombers

Aircraft were the very first leg of the triad to be developed, after all, it was from a bomber that the first two atomic bombs were used on Japan. And, to be fair, this was really the only way to deliver atomic bombs soon after their invention, largely because they were so unbelievable heavy. The Little Boy bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, for example, weighed 10,8000 pounds, or 4,900 kilograms.

After World War 2, the Convair B-36 Peacemaker was introduced as the United States’ dedicated nuclear bomber, a position which it would hold until the spot was taken over by the famous Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. The B-52 was perfect for the job, able to carry a wide variety of payloads while remaining in the air for long periods of time. However, because it was estimated that it would still take around 15 minutes for a bomber crew to receive an alert and get airborne, the US began to worry that a Soviet first strike would have the capability to destroy and cripple these planes before they ever even got off the runway.

And so, in 1961, Operation Chrome Dome was introduced, which had B-52s armed with nuclear weapons constantly in the air, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These rotating shifts would cover routes, generally over northern Canada, Alaska, and Greenland, that would allow them to fly to the USSR at a moment’s notice and avenge the United States in a worst-case scenario.

However, it soon became clear that this strategy of keeping planes perpetually in the air was leading to more problems than solutions. It turns out, constantly flying aircraft loaded with hydrogen bombs over foreign territory carries a high risk, which was starting to be realized in 1968 when a B-52 caught fire over Baffin Bay on the west coast of Greenland. The crew were forced to abandon the aircraft, which then crashed into sea ice, detonating the conventional bombs on board.

Fortunately, the four hydrogen bombs on board had safety measures to prevent them from fully detonating in a crash like this, but regardless, the explosions from the crash sent much of the radioactive material into the surrounding environment, contaminating the area with high levels of radioactivity. Denmark and the United States immediately launched an emergency clean up and search of the area, but, to this day, the secondary stage of one of the hydrogen bombs has never been found. This understandably marked a quick end to Operation Chrome Dome.

Terrifyingly, this wasn’t even the only nuke lost by the United States. Another was dropped into the Atlantic Ocean after a mid-air collision with a fighter jet, and another one was released into the ocean off the coast of Alaska when the bomber carrying it developed engine trouble and didn’t want to crash land with the bomb on board. Overall, the US has 6 nuclear bombs that it has lost and never recovered, and 5 of these are a result of accidents aboard aircraft. And if you think that’s concerning, just remember that those are only the publicly acknowledged American incidents, and that we also really have no way of knowing how many nukes the Soviets also lost.

But despite the higher risk associated with the planes, and even as more advanced delivery methods were invented, long-range strategic bombers remained an integral part of nuclear deterrence around the world for a few reasons. The first is reliability, as the aircraft have been updated over the years to carry not just nuclear bombs, but missiles with nuclear warheads as well for increased precision. The other is their visibility, as their deployment is a clear message to an adversary about a nation’s nuclear readiness, and, on the flip side, an indication of peace and cooling tensions when they are called back home.

Today, nuclear capable bombers remain on the ready at all times in several nations. In the United States, these payloads can be delivered by 46 nuclear capable B-52s, as well as 20 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. Russia operates 17 Tupolev Tu-160s, the heaviest ever variable sweep-wing plane, and China operates the Tu-16, which they originally purchased from the Soviets in the 1950s, but now manufacture independently.

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles

The first designs for a missile that could accurately strike targets at a considerable distance came from Germany’s V2 rockets in World War 2. These liquid-fuel missiles were able to strike British and Belgian cities with surprising accuracy, making them a constant threat that could arrive at any moment without warning. Nearing the end of the war, German scientists were working on the next evolution of the V2, the A9/10, which was intended to have enough range to be launched from Berlin and hit a target in New York City.

Fortunately, the war ended before these scientists made much progress, and the V2 rockets themselves didn’t have as much of an impact on the war as they’d expected. Their work continued, however, as the scientists involved were immediately picked up by the United States and the Soviet Union who put them right into their own research and development teams.

Each side put a considerable amount of effort into developing a missile that could strike the other side of the world, an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, but the technology just wasn’t there at first as rocket technology was still in its infancy. And, like we said earlier, early nukes were incredibly heavy, so much of the focus on early missiles was more conventional than nuclear. In fact, the US Air Force allegedly didn’t even take the program very seriously as they didn’t think it would ever be possible to fit weapons of mass destruction in the tip of a missile. However, when the Soviets tested their first hydrogen bomb in 1953, ICBM development was given the highest priority, and by 1958, the United States had successfully designed their first, the Atlas missile.

But these early ICBM designs throughout the 60s had some serious drawbacks. Not only were they quite unreliable, but they also required large launch facilities, making them obvious first-strike targets in the event of nuclear war.

Eventually, both sides ironed out these issues as rocket science leapt forward throughout the space race, and by the 1970s, the United States was fielding the ICBMs that it would maintain until this day, the Minuteman III. In contrast to its earlier variants, the Minuteman III did not pursue an even larger and more powerful warhead, instead, it is armed with three smaller MIRV W78 warheads to strike three targets in a single journey. MIRV stands for multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle, meaning that as the ballistic missile exits the atmosphere, instead of arcing downward straight onto its target like its predecessors, the warhead splits into several independent bombs, which can then each guide themselves toward separate targets.

Each of these warheads has a yield of 350 kilotons of TNT, about 3 times smaller than the warheads on the previous Minuteman variant, but make no mistake, a 350-kiloton yield is still a monster of a weapon, coming in at twenty-three times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The Minuteman III also comes with countermeasures to deceive missile defense systems, such as chaff and decoys, and throughout the years has been continually updated with state-of-the-art computer guidance. Its operational range is believed to be about 8,700 miles, or 14,000 kilometers, making it capable of striking just about anywhere on the planet with a high level of accuracy.

But for as great as it is, the Minuteman III is not the most powerful ICBM out there. Widely regarded as one of the ultimate nuclear deterrents, Russia’s RS-28 Sarmat, nicknamed Satan II, is nothing short of a creation of death itself. Classified as a “super-heavy ICBM”, it weighs more than 200 tons, has a range nearly 50% longer than the Minuteman III, and can carry an astounding 10 tons of payload.

This means that it can deliver 10 large warheads, 15 smaller warheads, and 24 hypersonic glide vehicles, which can be equipped with more explosives or various countermeasures. If fully equipped, it would hypothetically be able to deliver a blast yield of 50 megatons, more than 1,500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. But that’s only if it struck a single target with all its might.

More than likely, this type of missile would be used to hit several densely populated cities that are in close proximity, somewhere like the northeast United States.

These officially entered service in 2023, and are intended to become one of the cornerstones of Russia’s nuclear deterrence.

Alongside the US and Russia, ICBMs are operated by the UK, France, China, India, and North Korea, to some extent that is, and it’s also speculated that Israel has developed their own ICBMs, but this has yet to be confirmed.

Overall, intercontinental ballistic missiles are an invaluable part of the nuclear triad, and modern launch silos make them difficult to spot or take out during a first strike. Another advantage they pose is that being placed far from major population centers forces your opponent to choose between striking your people or your weapons. In the United States, nuclear silos are scattered throughout the sparsely populated Great Plains of Wyoming, North Dakota, and Nebraska, while in Russia they have been spread out across nearly the entire length of the country.

Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles

Once it was clear that missiles could carry nuclear payloads, the next logical step was to place these missiles on board submarines to get them as close as possible to the enemy and minimize their chances of interception. It probably won’t come as a surprise that it was again German scientists who first explored this idea, with a prototype V2 rocket launch tube towed behind a submarine. But as the scientists of the Cold War got working on it, it became clear that the best practice would be to contain the missile and it’s launch tube within the submarine itself.

The Soviets were the first to successfully fire a submarine launched ballistic missile, or SLBM, during a test which took place in September 1955. These early submarines needed to surface before firing, making them vulnerable during their launch, but by the 1960s the missiles could be fired from underwater.

But the big leap forward in technology came in 1959, when the United States introduced the USS George Washington, the first ever ballistic missile submarine with a nuclear-powered engine, followed by the Soviets just a year later. Nuclear powered engines were a massive innovation, as they were not only far more fuel efficient, meaning they could stay at sea much longer, but they were also quieter, making it harder for their presence to be detected.

In comparison to the other two arms of the nuclear triad, the submarines are the ones which have had the most direct confrontation with the enemy. Positioned on the metaphorical front line of the open ocean, submarine warfare on both sides raced forward, investing in better detection methods and anti-submarine weapons, while simultaneously innovating new ways to make their own subs stealthier.

In fact, these leaps forward in stealth once caused some tension between the United States and Japan. During the late Cold War, Japanese manufacturer Toshiba sold the Soviet Union advanced submarine propellers to reduce their sound, causing quite a bit of a scandal both within Japan and between US allies.

But that wasn’t the only scandal with one of these subs. Arguably the most famous incident with one occurred on October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A Soviet sub called B-59 had been submerged near Cuba for several days, during which the crew had lost contact with Moscow. While they were underwater, US warships were circling above them, dropping signaling depth charges as a way to force the submarine to the surface and identify itself.

Because it had been so long since they received a transmission from Moscow, many in the crew began to worry that nuclear war had already erupted above ground, and that the US ships were actually trying to sink the B-59 now that they were officially at war.

The captain of the submarine, Valentin Savitsky, decided that the best course of action was fire a T-5 nuclear torpedo. Luckily for the entire world, launching the nuclear torpedo required the authorization of all three officers on board, and one of them was against it. This was Vasily Arkhipov, and his refusal to give into the pressure of his peers likely prevented the Cuban Missile Crisis from turning into all-out war. Eventually, the submarine needed to surface, where it made contact with a US destroyer and was on its way back home.

Since the end of the Cold War, submarines are arguably the part of the triad that continues to have the most development. Improvements in stealth have advanced considerably, from sound and radar absorbent tiles to ever quieter engines, and detection methods have also become highly advanced, with nuclear subs able to be detected now from even trace amounts of radioactivity they leave in the water.

And with these continued advances, to this day, submarines remain perhaps the strongest nuclear deterrent on the planet. In the event of a massive nuclear strike, strategic bombers could be wiped out, shot down, or even have their runways destroyed, leaving them stranded on the ground. ICBMs are traditionally some of the most frightening threats, but unless an actual war were to break out, there’s no way to know whether or not these missiles could be intercepted, as ICBM defense systems are highly secretive around the world, and for all we know most if not all ICBMs could be intercepted before striking their targets.

What is known, however, is that submarine launched missiles are much harder to intercept due to their shorter flight path. Even if the other two triads are completely neutralized, submarines just off the coast of your enemy’s nation can guarantee that mutually assured destruction is always a possibility.

And this is the entire purpose of the nuclear triad. There are simply too many points of attack to be able to defend from entirely, ensuring that any nation with this setup always has the capability to launch a first or retaliatory strike. And so, with deterrent split between aircraft, land-based missiles, and submarines, the decades-old triad will hopefully continue to keep full-scale nuclear war out of sight, and out of mind.

Key Takeaways

• The nuclear triad, comprising strategic bombers, ICBMs, and submarine-launched missiles, ensures a nation’s ability to retaliate even after a first strike.
• Strategic bombers, like the B-52, were the first leg of the triad, but their constant airborne presence posed significant risks.
• ICBMs, such as the Minuteman III and Russia’s RS-28 Sarmat, offer long-range, high-yield nuclear strike capabilities with advanced countermeasures.
• Submarine-launched ballistic missiles provide a stealthy and hard-to-intercept nuclear deterrent, making them a crucial part of the triad.
• The nuclear triad’s purpose is to guarantee mutually assured destruction, preventing full-scale nuclear war through its multi-faceted attack capabilities.

Sources

• Original MegaProjects video: The Nuclear Triad: Always Prepared to End the World
• Hero image source by The original uploader was Emt147 at English Wikipedia. / openverse, by-sa.

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