Nukes, nubs and coners: The unique social hierarchy aboard a nuclear submarine
Interesting article, although as with most military write-ups of this nature perhaps a bit thin on the introspection.  Ever wonder just how much damage one nuclear submarine could do?<p>&gt; &quot;Rising between levels in the missile compartment, 24 large orange trunks fill the nuclear ballistic submarine like an apocalyptic orchard.&quot;<p>Probably (wiki) these are:
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;UGM-133_Trident_II" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;UGM-133_Trident_II</a><p>Each probably (wiki) carries four of these independently targeted warheads:
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;W88" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;W88</a><p>Now, if you want to basically wreck human civilization with one nuclear submarine, drop one of each warhead over each of the 100 largest nuclear reactor sites on the planet.  Fukushima for example had six reactors and &gt;1500 tons of fuel rods on hand at the time of that disaster.<p>This will cause a complete meltdown and aerosolization of much of the fuel, it&#x27;ll go into the atmosphere and rain down for thousands of miles downwind from the site, creating no-go conditions for human beings (unless you want massive radiation poisoning and birth defects etc.)  Multiply that by 100x around the planet and you can see what a mind-boggling disaster it would be.<p>Now, that&#x27;s just one nuclear submarine; there are many in operation.  Plus the land-based and bomber-based nukes.  And this is all done because otherwise, every single international conflict since Hiroshima would likely have escalated into the kind of crazy WWII tank battles and aerial bombardments of cities that took millions of lives.  Probably has prevented full-on land&#x2F;air&#x2F;sea battles between India and Pakistan, for example.  And yet... all it takes is some accident, some breakdown, some misunderstanding and the nukes start flying.<p>Makes you wonder, doesn&#x27;t it?  Some people will argue that this is why there are no alien civilizations, they all torched themselves once they reached our level of technological development.