ABSTRACT
From the early 1960s in practice, and from the mid-1950s in the minds of the planners, an element of the strategic deterrent armoury of both superpowers was sea-based. In both superpowers it was regarded as a component, not as a contender for sole custody of strategic nuclear force. The United States referred (and refers) to its seaborne deterrent as part of a triad, the other arms of which are land-based inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and bomber aircraft; 1 the Soviet Union subordinates its sea-based ballistic missiles to the Strategic Nuclear Forces Command, which consists in the main of land-based ICBMs. 2
