Nuclear crisis past and present. Consider the capability of the world’s nuclear arsenals today…
On October 27th, 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet submarine named B-59 nearly initiated a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Prior to approaching the US blockade surrounding Cuba, B-59 was armed with nuclear torpedoes—if the US Naval fleet wanted trouble, B-59 was prepared to reciprocate. For added stress on the sub’s captain, Valentin Savisky, B-59 was unable to communicate with the motherland at certain depths—game-time decisions were in Savisky’s hands. When B-59 was detected approaching the US blockade, US destroyers dropped depth charges to prevent the sub from getting any closer. Thinking the US and Soviets had gone to war above the trenches of the immense ocean, Savisky ordered the nuclear torpedo be prepared for launch. Anatoly Leonenko and Viktor Mikhailov, combat specialists also aboard B-59, later recall Savisky explicitly requesting the deployment of the sub’s nuclear torpedo—a request that if fulfilled would likely have sent the world into nuclear chaos. Fortunately, senior officers accompanying Savisky on B-59 were reportedly able to placate his initial reactions. The officers convinced Savisky to surface and contact the motherland before taking any world-ending actions. It is safe to say the world may have never been so close to nuclear war than on October 27th, 1962.
In October 1957, during a test codenamed Korall, the Soviets detonated a T-5 nuclear torpedo. The test occurred underwater, and the T-5 delivered a 4.8 kiloton payload of impressive shockwaves through the ocean. By 1958, the T-5 found its way aboard most Soviet submarines equipped with interchangeable nuclear and high-explosive warheads. B-59 held this torpedo in its arsenal on October 27th, 1962.
For comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, “Little Boy,” yielded roughly 13 kilotonnes of force. Little Boy killed approximately 70,000 people during the initial explosion alone. Every person within a 1.3-kilometer radius (roughly) of the blast site sustained lethal injury. 13 kilotonnes of energy is a cataclysmic force.
The Soviet Navy started exploring nuclear torpedo options in the early 1950s following the successful testing of their first nuclear bomb. The T-15 project aimed to manufacture a thermonuclear torpedo capable of creating exorbitant tsunamis and crippling enemy coastlines. However, deep sea blasts hardly crippled coastlines, as getting close to the US shore was difficult. The dream of the T-15 was mostly replaced by a more modest venture—the T-5. The T-5, designed to maximize kill-zone radius, could destroy the hull of an enemy submarine with powerful shockwaves from long distances. On that fateful October day, 1962, Savisky held his finger on the trigger of a sleek T-5 torpedo equipped with a 5-kiloton nuclear warhead ready to initiate apocalyptic war.
On October 30th, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated a 50-megaton bomb in an isolated archipelago. The Tsar Bomba, appropriately named for its ruling nature, generated a mushroom cloud 60 miles wide and 40 miles high, nearly reaching the stratosphere. Everything within 150 miles of the blast was irrevocably damaged. The bomb was designed in three reactionary stages—the first explosions of the two are meant to power the third. The Tsar bomb is considered a three-stage hydrogen bomb; it utilized fission-type explosions in the first stage of detonation. Fission is what fuels the thermonuclear reactions during the latter two stages.
Additional stages, involving more thermonuclear blasts, are certainly possible—it is said that before detonation, the Tsar payload was reduced from an astonishing 100 megatons to 50. The implications of a gargantuan 100 megaton explosion have never been tested.
Amid the T-15 project, the Soviets debated outfitting special subs with Tsar Bomba equivalents (50-megaton nuclear warheads). The only problem with the Tsar Bomba was its enormous size. When it came to torpedoes, the Soviets opted for the sleeker option.
On October 28, Moscow issued a statement to the public: all Soviet nuclear weapons would be dismantled and removed from Cuba. Tensions were finally quelled. The world breathed a sigh of relief, and the deep sea remained free from nuclear detonation. Illustrating the strength of the West, John F. Kennedy approached the crisis with calm and charisma. Maintaining wave supremacy, US naval blockades remained surrounding Cuba until late November. It was clear Kennedy was leaving no room for error. In his words, “Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.”
In 1963, US Secretary Dean Rusk and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban (LNTB). Shortly after being ratified in congress, the agreement crossed Kennedy’s desk where he signed it into action. This treaty ushered in a new era of civil discourse between the US and Soviet Union. After the LNTB went into effect, other important treaties followed. In 1968, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT) was signed by the US, Soviets, and Britain. Aimed at nurturing healthy uses of nuclear technology, the NNPT helped limit the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide. LNTB and NNPT were both aimed toward general disarmament efforts, reducing the number of nuclear weapons around the globe and limiting the destructive scale of nuclear powers. Within twenty years of signing the NNPT, the US and Russia agreed to tractile limitations of nuclear weaponry. Some treaties, like Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), limited ballistic missile arsenals and submarine torpedo capabilities. In 1991, the US and Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty—limiting the number of nuclear warheads each country can possess.
Projects like T-15 are chilling artifacts of the cold war. Following the tests of Tsar Bomba in ’61, the world can only wonder what kind of technological advances have been made in the last 60 years. Are submarines now outfitted with 100 megaton bombs? Have the bombs been designed to deliver
irreconcilable damage to naval hulls, or has the imaginative scope of weapons experts expanded? Treaties like LNTB, NNPT, and SALT I were hopeful signs of civility. Perhaps nuclear disarmament is possible and treaties like these can save our species from nuclear war despite the fast-growing abilities of nuclear technology. Their importance cannot be understated, especially in uncertain times such as these.