ABSTRACT
India, which acquired a nuclear-powered submarine from the Soviet Union under a short-term lease in 1988, and Canada, which announced a program to purchase similar vessels from France or Great Britain the same year, appears to have cancelled their plans to acquire nuclear submarines from foreign suppliers. Brazilian and Argentine programs to develop nuclear submarines indigenously were also a growing source of concern at the time. Employing the Non-Proliferation Treaty loophole, a nuclear-weapon state, for example, could surreptitiously provide a non-nuclear ally with a nuclear weapons capability by supplying it excessive quantities of weapons-usable uranium in the form of submarine fuel. Argentina’s navy, like that of India and Brazil, relies on West German conventional submarines, which might well serve as the starting point for Argentine efforts in the field of nuclear-powered subs. West German shipyards are reportedly focusing their own attentions on the development of a vessel propelled by a hybrid.
