What You Need to Know About Nuclear Torpedoes

By the author of The Faithful Prepper and Zombie Choices

Throughout human history, mankind has recognized the importance of waterways. It is for this reason that cities and towns throughout the world are commonly found clustered along rivers, lakes, or by the shore. Water makes the transportation of large amounts of goods both efficient and economical.

Water also makes moving large amounts of soldiers, munitions, weaponry, food, or other wartime logistical goods both efficient and economical.

It’s because of this recognition that throughout history, nations have built as powerful of navies as they could manage. Not only did this help to protect their nation’s borders (enemies would have a more difficult time with logistics for an amphibious invasion), but it helped to protect a nation’s mercantile ships and gave nations the means to strike back at an overseas invader.

Pain as a deterrence works.

One doesn’t have to look far to see the military importance here. The birth of the US Marines as they fought the pirates of Tripoli would be a prime example. An American navy not only made it possible for us to rescue enslaved Americans in Africa, but it made it so that Tripoli was afraid to enslave Americans again in the future.

In World War II, the reason the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was that they knew it was the site of the bulk of America’s Pacific fleet. With the US Navy on its knees, Japan would have fuller control over the Pacific Theater, able to invade nations as it pleased them.

World War II also caused the world to realize the importance of the aircraft carrier. Here was an invention that perfectly melded both air and sea capability. Without air superiority in modern conventional warfare, one stands a slim chance of victory. Aircraft carriers help to provide that air superiority.

What’s the point?

The point is this: what if there were a way to take out an entire fleet at the push of a button? If so, could it not render an opponent completely incapable of a military response in a geographic region? All troops on the ground would be left without any form of resupply other than that which was available via land or by air. Planes would have to utilize accommodating air strips. Bombardment by sea would no longer be a possibility.

How long would it take for resupply to take place? What would the cost be? How long would it take for an opponent’s remaining naval forces to rebuild and come back to the area?

The destruction of an entire fleet is to file down the firing pin of one’s military dominance, and should such an event take place, the aggressor would be at a mighty advantage.

But is there a weapon capable of this type of action?

Absolutely.

Introducing, nuclear torpedoes.

Russia’s navy has been working on nuclear torpedoes for years now, and finally operational with the creation of The Poseidon torpedo.

This weapon is both nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered, the size of a bus and 7’ in diameter. It’s largely theorized that these subs are primarily designed to target coastal ports, but what about enemy fleets? If there’s a large congregation of naval forces in one geographic region, the Poseidon could easily be used to obliterate the entire fleet. This would accomplish all of what we’ve just listed and more.

(For more information on emergency evacuations, make sure you check out our free QUICKSTART Guide.)

And how would nuclear torpedoes find their way to the target?

Via the new and massive Russian fleet of submarines that are being built. At the moment, the Russians have the Sarov, specifically built-in 2007, for use with this new devastating weapon. The Khabarovsk was another submarine capable of holding Poseidon torpedoes and was scheduled to be completed and released in the fall of 2021. It is likely operational at the time of this writing.

Each Poseidon-capable submarine is capable of holding six of these Poseidon missiles, and as of August 2021, it was believed that Russia was going to build a total of four of these Poseidon-capable submarines.

One of the chinks in the armor here, though, is that Russian submarines of this size are typically “loud” underwater and thus, easily found. But Russia has been working on a go-around for this problem with the creation of missiles being staged on the ocean floor in specialized containers that will hold the missile until they are programmed to be released.

If you’ll remember, The Organic Prepper recently wrote about strange Russian undersea activity off the coast of Ireland where the undersea cables connecting Europe and America were located. While some sort of tampering is most likely taking place there, is it not possible that Poseidon torpedoes could be being staged here as well?

If that is indeed the case, nuclear torpedoes could give Russia quite the edge over Western Europe.

Bristol is one of the main ports in England, located in what is likely considered to be within range of where the Russian naval exercise took place. These torpedoes can travel at roughly 80mph and are believed to be capable of a trans-ocean range, making this is not outside the realm of possibility. The nuclear payload is believed to be two megatons as well. Early reports with this torpedo stated it was a 100-megaton payload, but this theory has since been revised.

For comparison, Hiroshima took a 15-kiloton payload.

So, if we use the fantastic nuclear war simulator Nuke Map, we can see how this might play out. If there was the detonation of a two-megaton warhead within the port of Bristol, England

Surprisingly, it doesn’t appear as if the blast proper would kill more than 1000 people. What I find even more concerning here, though, is you can see this would layer a huge cloud of radioactive fallout right through the center of England if this were to occur. One thousand rads/hour would cut through where the dark red oval is. 1000 rads is the equivalent of 1140 roentgen. A total of 450 roentgen kills 50% of those it hits.

France has a number of major ports that would be a straight shot, with Brest likely being the closest potential target. If we use Nuke Map to simulate a two-megaton explosion in the harbor of Brest, we again find that while relatively not that many people would apparently die in the blast, the nuclear fallout would reach as far as London.

Not only would Brest be taken out, but if one considers that you can receive six roentgen/day for two months without becoming ill, it would mean that Londoners would have to limit their time outside/day to six hours. This would severely hamper anyone involved with any form of outside activity (e.g., shipbuilders). 

Whether it’s a coastal town or a naval fleet, nuclear torpedoes are not a weapon to be ignored.

Part of prepping is understanding the threats that are out there. If you know what the potential problems are, you can begin to better formulate a plan of action. Check out this article for more information. You can also have some idea of what to expect. As we continue to give you updates on the status of the current war, this may be a particular threat to keep in mind. We put together a quick anthology of all our nuclear preparedness and information articles that you can get here and name your own price. If times are tough, pay as little as you like, and if you want to support the site more, pay as much as you like. This is information available on the website in an easily printable format so you can get a hard copy immediately.

What are your thoughts? Do you think nuclear torpedoes are a likely threat to the US? Let us know in the comments below.

About Aden

Aden Tate is a regular contributor to TheOrganicPrepper.com and TheFrugalite.com. Aden runs a micro-farm where he raises dairy goats, a pig, honeybees, meat chickens, laying chickens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and greens. Aden has two published books, The Faithful Prepper and Zombie Choices. You can find his podcast The Last American on Preppers’ Broadcasting Network.