Page 136 - NS-2 Textbook

THE COLD WAR ERA 129

On 1 November 1952 a new threshold in nuclear
warfare was crossed with the test explosion of the first
u.s. hydrogen bomb on Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific. In
August 1953 the Soviet Union detonated its version of
the super-explosive bomb. As President Eisenhower ex-
panded u.s. military power to cope with the growing So-
viet cold war threat, there was a greater spirit of cooper-
ation among the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They now realized
that all components of the u.s. armed forces had a defi-
nite role in limited war, as well as in deterring possible
nuclear war 'with the Soviet Union. This fie"v cooperative
sphit would show itself many times in various crises
throughout the remainder of the cold war and thereafter,
when joint forces from all services would many times be
called upon to protect u.s. interests arotmd the globe.
Approval of the new carrier construction program
won for the Navy its battle to be a part of the nation's nu-
clear sh'iking force. The Forrestal class was designed to
launch planes capable of carrying nuclear bombs. The
difficulty of locating and neutralizing mobile nuclear-
equipped carrier forces was certainly a deterrent that any
aggressor would have to consider seriously.
While the new carriers were being built, an even
more far-reaching naval teclmical development oc- Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. When considering the contribu-
tions of naval leaders since World War II, one would be hard pressed
curred. Under the direction of the Navy's hard-driving to find anyone who had a more profound effect than Admiral Rick-
Captain (later Admiral) Hyman G. Rickovel~ the world's over. Always controversial and often irascible, his dedication and
first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nalitillis put perseverance earned for him the title "Father of the Nuclear Navy."
For forty years he almost singlehandedly led the Navy's postwar de-
to sea in January 1955. It was soon followed by a fast-
velopment of probably the most sophisticated weapon system the
growing fleet of nuclear attack submarines. During the world has ever known-the nuclear submarine.
remainder of the hventieth century, nuclear power
would become as significant to the Navy as the shift from
sail to steaIn had been during the Civil War.
The next significant development was an intermedi-
ate-range nuclear-tipped ballistic missile naIned the Po- During the 1960s, a whole new generation of mobile
laris, which could be latmched from a submerged sub- logistic ships designed for underway replenislunent
marine. Simultaneously a new class of submarines that (UNREP) joined the fleet. These had the capability of ser-
could launch it was built. The USS George Washingtoll vicing whole task groups at sea at speeds up to 20 knots.
went into commission in 1959 as the first of the new fleet Improvement in large helicopters added the new dimen-
of ballistic missile submarines. These new submarines, sion of vertical replenishment (VERTREP) to mobile lo-
and the succession of improved missiles they would gistics. Both the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and
carry, would join with the Army's land-based ICBMs (in- Seventh Fleet in the West Pacific receive the bulk of their
tercontinental ballistic missiles) and the Air Force's stores in UNREP and VERTREP operations today.
manned bombers to become a significant leg of the na- Similarly, in the 1960s and 1970s new ships trans-
tion's triad of strategic deterrence for the balance of the formed the amphibious squadrons of the Atlantic and
century. Several classes of nuclear-powered aircraft carri- Pacific Fleets into 20-knot operational groups capable of
ers and other surface warships followed. landing a fully equipped marine battalion on an enemy
For much of the next three decades, U.S. nuclear at- beach. The advent of nuclear weapons required the mod-
tack submarines would playa major (and only recently ification of amphibious doctrine, emphasizing mobility
revealed) role in the cold war at sea. Specially equipped and dispersal. The helicopter made a major impression
submarines vvere often sent on extended secret spy mis- on aInphibious warfare also, with the tactic of vertical
sions to monitor Soviet military comnumications only envelopment, which is the airlift of troops and equip-
miles off the Soviet coasts. Others frequently secretly fol- ment to landing areas behind the selected assault beach.
lowed Soviet missile subs on their patrols, ready to sink There, they can prevent enemy reinforcements from
them before they could launch their deadly cargo should opposing the landing and the later delivery of logistic
war have ever broken out during these years. support.