Nuclear weapons are highly destructive and give a decisive advantage to those who possess them. The primary delivery options are missiles, submarines, high altitude bombers, and theater-specific deployment methods. Submarines are the deadliest option, while bombers and missiles offer the advantage of avoiding first strike attacks. Tactical nukes, such as conventional cruise missiles and mortars, have a lower yield and are designed for use against incoming enemy forces.
Nuclear weapons are probably the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen. They are powerful enough to give any party a decisive advantage when used in sufficient numbers and with sufficiently diverse delivery methods. For this reason, the nuclear states – the US, Russia, China, France, the UK, India, Pakistan and Israel – are reluctant to give them up. If nuclear war had broken out, what delivery methods would have been used? Macabre question, but to be considered for the geopolitical implications.
There are four primary delivery options for nukes, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious is mounted on a missile. All nuclear states possess at least medium-range ballistic missiles (3,300-5,500 km range), and most of them have ICBMs (greater than 5,500 km range). These missiles would be launched from military bases or from submarines. Submarines offer the deadliest attack option, as they are highly stealthy and are less susceptible to a first strike than a fixed missile bay. Were it not for submarines, it might actually be possible to defeat a nuclear country in a nuclear first strike, simply by bombing all of its missile bays.
Another delivery option for nuclear weapons would be to use high altitude bombers, such as the B-2. This is the option used for the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the last weeks of WWII. Today bombers are very stealthy and fly at high altitudes. They are likely arrayed to fly in continuous circles over the world’s oceans at all times, we don’t know. This would give them the advantage of being able to avoid first strike attacks. The United States maintains various bases on isolated islands around the world, to give the nation a potential advantage in deploying nuclear weapons in the event of war. A B-2 bomber can contain 16 nuclear weapons.
Other deployment methods for nuclear weapons would be theater specific, designed to be deployed by more or less conventional forces in the midst of intense warfare. This brings us to the other two methods of deployment: conventional cruise missiles and mortars. These “tactical nukes” would have a lower yield than large bombs deployed on rockets or bombers and would be designed to be used against incoming enemy forces. During the Cold War, numerous US troops equipped with nuclear mortars were stationed in Germany, ready to attack the Soviets should they invade Europe. Today, the mortar-based approach has largely been phased out in favor of more sophisticated, long-range delivery systems.
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