[Matt Wiser]

I don't go by canon when it comes to the war at sea: there'd be a lot more surviving ships and subs than what GDW's writers said. Only one SSN left in the U.S. Navy? Hardly.

Don't forget the SURTASS ships with their towed arrays: their job was to back up SOSUS and provide some capability in case SOSUS was lost. More than enough to give sub warnings and enable ASW forces to be directed onto contacts.

Taking out D.C. was either a boomer that was sunk before she could fire her full load, or a SSN-like an Akula, with a SS-N-21 fired at the same time as the first SLBMs were launched.

And in a situation where both sides are using tactical nukes, naval commanders are actually going to have free reign as to where and how they use their tactical weapons (Sea Lance, B-57 NDBs, gravity bombs from carrier aircraft, nuclear SAMs, etc.) If a sub skipper finds a Delta or Typhoon, and can't penetrate the Soviet ASW screen, guess what? He fires a Sea Lance standoff weapon with a 20 KT warhead and drops that B-90 depth bomb right on top of that boomer or in between the boomer and her escort SSN, and that's that. Navy nukes didn't have PALs, after all. Once tac nukes are released to the Navy, the battle group commander-or the sub skipper-would have discretion as to when, where, and how many to fire. TLAM-Ns excepted, as those were considered "strategic" rather than tactical.