ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the performance characteristics of nuclear missile-carrying submarines, the various uses this weapons system admits, and the type of hostile action it may encounter during war or during periods of international crisis. It assesses the present and future role of the missile-carrying submarine in the strategic arsenals of the United States, the Soviet Union, and other nuclear countries. From time to time, the deterrent value of missile-carrying submarines has been challenged on the basis of claims that strategic submarines are vulnerable to a concerted anti-submarine warfare (ASW) effort against them. One reassuring measure would be to designate, by international agreement, areas in the oceans accessible only to submarines of one nation. Each country with submarine-based nuclear weapons could have allocated to her submarine fleet several such areas which would of course be large compared to the search and kill radii of tactical ASW vessel.
