Weapons and Technology during the Cold War: by Ben Thompson
Though the Cold War was not actually a war it did involve a major arms rae between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The missiles built during the cold war were divided into main groups: Tactical weapons and Strategic Weapons. Tactical weapons are intended for use in battles between amoured forces on the ground, sea, and air. Strategic weapons are intended for use against factories and/or civilian populated cities. A Nuclear weapon could be either tactical or strategic. Thoughout the Cold War Nuclear weapons were built in large quantities. In fact by 1991 the US pocessed 11,966 Nuclear weapons and the USSR pocessed 10,980 Nuclear weapons. An ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile)is another weapon built in large quantities. In the begining of the Cold War, ICBM's could only carry a single warhead, however by the end of the Cold War ICBM's could carry multiple warheads. During the Cold War, while the USSR continued to build bigger and more destructive missiles. The United States began to develop ideas to defend their country from an attack. The most popular of these ideas was the SDI (Strategic Defense Intiative) System. However, when President Ronald Regan was approached with the idea, he turned it down and the system was never further pursued.
In 1945, the first nuclear bomb was delived bomber. Therefor, the United States and the Soviet Union developed technology durin the Cold War to build long range bombers. These bombers were large and could carry serveral bombs. And by the end of the Cold War the United States had 277 bombers, and the Soviet Union had 177 bombers. The Soviet Union seeing that the United States outweighted them, began building means of defending their country from an air attack. However, the United States developed a countermeasure called a Cruise Missile. These proved to be very effective, and by the end of the war Cruise Missiles could be used as an attack or defense weapon.
Thoughout the Cold War submarines played a major rule. In the Cold War they were used for Intelligence gathering rather then combat. Both the United States and the USSR had a fleet of disiel submarines in the beginning of the Cold War. From what has been declassified by the US Navy, at the time of the Cold War the US submarines were hooked up with "Spook" equipment. This equipment was used to listen to soviet telephones and other communication devices. This gave the United States an andvantage, over the Soviet Union due to the fact that they knew what the Soviets were doing. However, if a "Spook" submarine was caught it be disastrous for the United States. Thats where diesel submarines proved to be outdated because a diesel submarine could only stay underwater for a few hours before it had to surface to take in oxygen. Thats when the United States developed the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus. Nuclear submarines could stay under water for days before they had to surface. Thus making them harder to catch and kill. However, it wasn't long before the USSR developed nuclear powered submarines. Perhaps the Soviet Union's greastest naval achiement was the constrution of the Typhoone Class nuclear submarine. These submarines could carry 20 or more nuclear missiles. Another naval achiement for the United States and the Soviet Union was the development of the "floating air base", the aircraft carrier. During the second world war the United States and Japan relied heavily on their aircraft carriers. Now before the World War II, the some European countries, the United States, and Japan, where engaged in another arms race this one was for battleships. However, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the need for the United States to build carriers became clear. So the United States deployed its 5 carriers to the pacific to engage the Japanese fleet. In the hopes, of them buying time for the United States to build more efficent Aircraft carriers. The USS Saratoga, Lexington, Yorktown, Enterprise, and Hornet were all deployed to the Pacific. Though, the Yorktown, Lexington, and Hornet did not survive the war, the US was able to create enough carriers and escort ships, to defeat the Japanese at sea. In the Cold War the modernization of carriers began with the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier: USS Enterprise(named after the famous WWII aircraft carrier). Now the Soviet Union also had carriers, however they were behind the Americans, in terms of size of their fleet of surface ships. Mainly, do to the fact that the USSR had virtally no warm water ports, so they focused their resources on their sub fleet.
Bibliography:
Submarine Warfare, Author: Micheal and Gladys Green
Aircraft Carriers, Author: Antony Preston
Encyclopedia of the Cold War, Author: Thomas D. Jones
My Favorite Web sites
Infomation on CNN about Nuclear Bombs
Infomation on Missiles and Bombers
Infomation on Submarines of the Cold War
