[Vespers War]

Originally Posted by RN7

The Panama Canal is strategically important but I don't think the Soviets targeted it with nuclear weapons for a number of reasons.

Firstly they would need more than one nuclear weapon to destroy the locks as both the Atlantic and Pacific entrance are 50 miles apart with their own series of locks in separate channels.

Secondly the Atlantic entrance has two sets of locks with two separate channels. The Gatun Locks and the new Agua Clara locks that are miles apart, although I don't think the Agua Clara was completed at this time.

The Agua Clara and Cocoli were proposed in 2006 and began operation in 2016, so no, it was not completed at this time.

Thirdly the Pacific entrance also has two sets of locks with separate channels. The Pedro Miguel locks and the Miraflores locks, and each lock is also miles apart.

Ships have to pass through both sets of locks, but the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores each have two channels. The Cocoli is the parallel third lock, which was built at the same time as the Agua Clara. Ships either go through Pedro Miguel AND Miraflores, or they go through Cocoli instead. In 2000, Cocoli does not exist, so destroying either Pedro Miguel or Miraflores shuts down the canal (as does destroying Gatun at the other end).

Fourthly I don't think Soviet missiles launched from either the Soviet Union or from a submarine are accurate enough to hit even one lock. Also US forces in the Panama Canal Zone are widely dispersed over the region and hard to destroy. The Panama Canal is also not in US territory but in a Latin American country, and a nuclear attack would anger other Latin American countries including Soviet allies Cuba and Nicaragua. However a Soviet sabotage mission to disable the locks would be on the cards.

To be honest, I'm not sure you'd need to precisely hit the locks. Wiping out the mule locomotives would cripple the canal, since they'd no longer be able to safely position ships in the locks. Small vessels would still be able to transit with handlines, but anything large wouldn't be safe because it would damage both itself and the canal walls. Destroying the mules would be easier than destroying the thick locks, but I'm not certain whether long-range weapons would be precise enough.

Also, the Panama Canal was US territory until 1977 and joint US-Panama territory until 1999, and likely would still be jointly held in the Twilight War.