Nuclear triad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In nuclear strategy, the nuclear triad refers to the three tiers of a country's nuclear arsenal, composed of strategic bombers (carrier-based or land-based; armed with bombs or missiles), missiles (nuclear cruise missiles or intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)), and ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).

The possession of a nuclear triad virtually eliminates the possibility that an enemy could destroy all of a country's nuclear forces in a first strike attack, ensuring that a devastating response could be carried out. Thus, the nuclear triad greatly enhances second strike capability, allowing for more effective nuclear deterrence.

Several types of other nuclear weapons exist, including nuclear artillery, torpedoes, depth charges, land mines, naval mines, and portable "suitcase bombs". However, these systems are expensive to create and maintain, less effective due to their smaller yield, and often more strictly limited by nuclear-arms control agreements like the Seabed Arms Control Treaty. As a result, nuclear versions of these systems have never been produced on a large scale, and existing stockpiles were drastically reduced or eliminated following the Cold War.