Submarines are combat ships that rely on stealth and the ability to pinpoint targets and threats. An array of weapons enables submarines to engage their targets and defend themselves against attack. Both boomers and fast attacks carry torpedoes; for SSBNs they provide self-defense, for SSNs they serve as primary weapons. Fast attacks can also lay mines. Both types carry acoustic countermeasure devices, such as noisy decoys, to help confuse enemy sonar and homing torpedoes.
SSBNs carry strategic missiles tipped by nuclear warheads that can obliterate cities several thousand miles away. Of quite a different order were the missiles carried by SSNs during the Cold War. Whether armed with nuclear or high-explosive warheads, they were limited in range to a few hundred miles at most, and were chiefly intended for attacking individual surface ships or submarines beyond torpedo range. All such tactical missiles have now been phased out, with one exception. In recent years, fast attacks may carry land-attack cruise missiles—small, jet-propelled, pilotless aircraft with high-explosive warheads accurate enough to target individual buildings in a city.
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Submarines are combat ships that rely on stealth and the ability to pinpoint targets and threats. An array of weapons enables submarines to engage their targets and defend themselves against attack. Both boomers and fast attacks carry torpedoes; for SSBNs they provide self-defense, for SSNs they serve as primary weapons. Fast attacks can also lay mines. Both types carry acoustic countermeasure devices, such as noisy decoys, to help confuse enemy sonar and homing torpedoes.
SSBNs carry strategic missiles tipped by nuclear warheads that can obliterate cities several thousand miles away. Of quite a different order were the missiles carried by SSNs during the Cold War. Whether armed with nuclear or high-explosive warheads, they were limited in range to a few hundred miles at most, and were chiefly intended for attacking individual surface ships or submarines beyond torpedo range. All such tactical missiles have now been phased out, with one exception. In recent years, fast attacks may carry land-attack cruise missiles—small, jet-propelled, pilotless aircraft with high-explosive warheads accurate enough to target individual buildings in a city.
