nuclear triad
Three-pronged apocalypse delivery
A nuclear triad is a three-part nuclear weapons delivery system: land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and strategic bombers.
The rationale is redundancy—if one component is destroyed in a first strike, the others ensure retaliatory capability.
The United States, Russia, China, and India maintain nuclear triads.
- missileSelf-guided airborne weapon
- B-52Heavy strategic bomber
- deterrencePrevention via threatened consequences
- warheadMunition's explosive section
- TridentBallistic missile designation
ballistic missiles · arms race · submarine · atomic weapon · intercontinental ballistic missile · ICBM · mutual assured destruction · strategic bomber · stealth bomber · command and control · hydrogen bomb · thermonuclear · Pentagon · retaliation · dead hand · fail safe · fallout · doomsday clock
- strategystrategy, grand strategy, tactics, tactic, tactical
- nuclear waratomic bomb, hydrogen bomb, ICBM, mushroom cloud, first strike
- Pentagon ProgramsDARPA, F-22, F-22 Raptor, F-35, B-2 bomber
- deliverycourier, mail, parcel post, postal service, parcel service
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
- Air Forceflying officer, squadron leader, wing commander, group captain, air marshal
nuclear triadconventional forces
Traditional armed units
conventional weapons · infantry · conventional warfare · ground troops · peacekeeping forces
nuclear triadnuclear disarmament
Reducing atomic weapon stockpiles
denuclearization · demilitarization · non-proliferation · pacifism · peace dividend
nuclear, triad, nucleus, nucleotide, nuclei, nucleotides, antinuclear, nonnuclear, nuclearize