HLSS522Wk7

 

The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were delivered by airplanes. Specialized warheads were later developed for strategic ballistic missiles. Nuclear weapons for artillery projectiles, landmines, anti-submarine depth charges, torpedoes, and shorter-range ballistic and cruise missiles have also been developed.

The United States maintains a nuclear triad for the delivery of nuclear weapons: land, sea, and air. Russia maintains a similar triad, but most other nations with nuclear capabilities do not have the means to do so. From the air, heavy bombers have the ability to change their levels of readiness up or down spontaneously and can be dispersed among military bases or other locations. These aircraft provide the widest array of yield options when it comes to delivering different types of nuclear weapons and can carry a large number of weapons with both nuclear and conventional capabilities.

On the land, intercontinental-range ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are the most responsive and least cost-intensive leg of the triad and are typically used to carry thermonuclear warheads. They can be launched faster and reach targets more rapidly than nuclear weapons deployed by air or sea. An opponent may be forced to exhaust their own nuclear forces to disarm an ICBM; without them, as few as five nuclear warheads could successfully disarm U.S. forces. Destroying ICBMs in significant numbers by small nuclear powers would not be possible.

And on the water, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) are the most survivable of all methods of deployment in the nuclear triad. Deploying more ballistic missile submarines at sea can signal an increase in concern and alert level, while surfacing or returning them to the port can signal an easing of tensions, an ability to signal that can increase deterrence.

Deployment

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