Today, the submarine is the most powerful asset in modern warfare and increasingly, nations see these silent leviathans of the deep as the ultimate military asset in a hi-tech world where satellites can track planes, ships and almost anything – except a nuclear boat. Submarines can remain at sea for months, sit in the dark depths of the oceans listening for other submarines and be ready if ordered to launch a ballistic missile strike. Their covert capability allows them to patrol anywhere without trace generating an aurora of psychological anxiety for their foes who never know where they are or what they are doing. From the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia, India, North Korea, Iran, Japan, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Egypt, Pakistan, Sweden, Peru, Spain, Poland, Argentina and South Africa the submarine has been adopted as the ultimate weapon of smaritime defence.
A handful of global powers operate nuclear-powered boats and more aspire to obtain nuclear status. The majority of countries deploy conventional powered fleets to meet their littoral needs. These small submarines are often more suited to shallow tropical waters, but nuclear-powered boats have the advantage in that they can stay at sea for an enduring period as they do not need fuel – their only restraint being the volume of food they can carry for the crew. Ballistic submarines operate at the strategic level and are armed with nuclear weapons when on a patrol in a policy referred to as the Continuous at sea Deterrent (CASD). The submarines that carry these ballistic weapons are known as ‘bombers’. They never surface after leaving port and while crew members can receive weekly family messages, they cannot transmit a reply. The commander and his command team are trained to respond to one message that they hope they will never receive – the order to open the safe to the nuclear codes in readiness to launch their warheads.
The first concepts of ‘submerged operations’ that pioneered today’s modern submarines emerged centuries ago, then leapt forward in development during the First and Second World Wars. The British built a formidable force, but it was the Germans who adopted the tactic of hit and run attacks with their U-boats to sink allied shipping convoys in the Atlantic. They were initially very successful, but the
