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Originally Posted by Kurushio
I never actually knew nuclear depth charges existed.  |
At one point, they were the primary ASW weapon in the USN's arsenal. Other nations had them as well, even nations that were officially non-nuclear, such as the Netherlands. The ASROC and SUBROC were primarily nuclear weapons. My boss started his career studying the effects of nuclear depth charges and nuclear tipped cruise missiles.
I think sometimes people like to make themselves feel good and think, "Awww... it never would have really gone nuclear." The truth is if WWIII happened, it'd would have become a nuclear conflict almost immediately. It probably would have been nuclear at sea before it was nuclear on land too, I think, simply because nuclear weapons make very natural weapons of ASW.
As time goes by, that mindset seems to fade, and real horror of what the world was faced with in the Cold War becomes romanticized or forgotten.
I think the thing that will ultimately make nuclear weapons obsolete will almost certainly be precision guided weapons. At this point, there's a lot of talk that the proper response to a nuclear attack might actually be a precision conventional strike. They really are that powerful, but focused. They're also more verstatile in a lot of ways. If there is a second best choice to a peaceful world, I suspect it might be a world where those conflicts which do exist are confined to willing participants. In Africa, there's a saying, "When elephants fight, the grass suffers." It is never more the case than with nuclear weapons.