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Originally Posted by shipkiller1
You are also assuming the CO had nuclear release authority, which in all actuality he would not until the big missiles are already flying...
When I went to Fire Control 'C' school (1980) and learned how to fix the 'Leveling computer' (used for Subroc) all of the older FT's stated that in no uncertain terms that NO one would launch one of these...
Also, based on the sonar technology of the time (your time frame 1966) you most likely would not detect an SSBN at 30K+ and even if you did, you could not resolve the range down to where the CEP was sufficient to destroy the contact. At that range, you definitely would not know if he was in a launch cycle.
When President Bush pulled all the tactical nukes out of the fleet, we were all doing hand stands... thank god they were going away... Not because of what they represented but for all the crazy rules/requirements of just having them on board. They were a nightmare.
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No doubt they were, but they were still carried very frequently from 1965 until the late 80s. Insanity and impracticality is nothing new for nuclear weapons. Hell, into the 70s they had the BOMARC and Genie anti-air weapons which would have been detonated in the air over North America in hopes of downing Soviet bomber formations!