5 Submarines That Could Kill Billions of People in Minutes

TNI Staff

Security,

These subs might be the most horrific weapon of war ever built.

Built at the same time as the mighty Typhoon-class, the Delta IV is the current backbone of the Russian ballistic missile submarine fleet. The older 18,200-ton Delta IV design is nonetheless a capable platform and its armed with 16 R-29RMU Sineva liquid-fuel ballistic missiles, each of which can carry between four and eight warheads. Unlike previous versions of the Project 667 design, the Delta IV is able to fire missiles in any direction from a constant course in a circular sector. It is also able to fire its ballistic missiles from a depth of 55 meters while cruising at a speed of six to seven knots.

While they have thankfully never been used during a shooting war, nuclear-powered submarines carrying nuclear-tipped missiles are the most deadly weapons mankind has ever devised. In some cases—as in the case of the Ohio-class submarine during the height of the Cold War—even a single vessel could reduce as many as 288 city-sized targets into radioactive ash in less than 30 minutes. Indeed, these vessels and their payloads could end human civilization in less time than it takes to order a pizza if a third world war were to break out.

(This first appeared in May of last year.)

In this article, we have picked five of the most capable nuclear-armed submarines that are either in service or will soon enter service. Older vessels such as the Soviet Union’s massive Project 941 Akula—known in the West as the Typhoon—are not included because those vessels have been largely retired and dismantled. Only Dmitriy Donskoy remains in service with the Russian Navy as a test vessel stripped of her ballistic missile armament.

Ohio-class Ballistic Missile Submarine