Which side in the Cold War had the best second strike capability in the 1980s?

Which side in the Cold War had the best second strike capability in the 1980s?

  • USSR

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • US

    Votes: 8 80.0%

  • Total voters
    10

SsgtC

Banned
Longer range, more accurate missiles, earlier introduction of MIRV'd missiles, all NATO SSBNs capable of submerged launch, NATO boats generally also carried more missiles than their Soviet counterparts. Plus, they're far quieter, meaning more NATO boats survived than WP boats did

Better how?
 
I lean US because of SSBNs, but would the late 80s USSR rail based ICBMs be functional enough to make a difference?
 
The US or Team West far better SSBNs

Seconded for this alone, but toss in the bomber force, some of which would survive and get through, and the likely impossibility of getting even most of the ICBMs, much less all, and yeah NATO comes out ahead, the US in particular. The Soviet Navy lacked the ability to track NATO boats to the same degree that NATO navies could track the Soviet boats, the Soviets had relatively few (and inferior) bombers, but they had more ICBMs, so getting all of them was unlikely in the extreme, and for that matter it appears that the Soviets planned a bastion strategy (in the White Sea) for their boats so getting all of them would have been extremely difficult (at least).

In my view, there was no successful First Strike strategy that does not result in both sides being wrecked, perhaps for all time.
 
Top