Quote:
Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b
The Soviets/Russians and the US, and I would guess China (though I have no hard evidence on the Chinese) have nuclear sea mines and nuclear torpedoes and nuclear antiship missiles and SSMs, which are to be used to destroy large ships like aircraft carriers and boomers, as well as seaports and facilities like the Panama and Suez canals, and the dikes in the Netherlands. I don't know what the stock of these weapons is like now, but I'll bet that both sides have a good supply.
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Not even counting the nukes, but at the height of the Cold War, the Soviets were conservatively estimated at maintaining about 6 to 7 times the stocks of the U.S. . Soviet writings indicated that these mines would be used offensively to blockade NATO ports, restrict shipping lanes and choke points, and to seal off the North and Baltic Seas. Defensively, mines would be used to restrict approaches to Warsaw Pact ports, provide bastions to allow Soviet conventional subs safe places to recharge and most importantly to seal off Arctic waters and allow Soviet boomers safe havens from NATO subs...not to mention freeing up their own subs for anti-convoy duties.
While NATO had a qualitative edge in ASW, the Soviets had a quantitative edge that would have made the naval battles of World War III sheer, bloody, hell.