Strategy&Future

Jacek Bartosiak talks to Hugh White on strategic implications of nuclear submarine acquisition for Australia as well as the operational aspects of that procurement.

Jacek Bartosiak talks to Hugh White on strategic implications of nuclear submarine acquisition for Australia as well as the operational aspects of that procurement.

There were many iconic images of the first nuclear age; videos of the explosions themselves, still photographs made with the Rapatronic camera, depicting the first nanoseconds of the nuclear blast, or the famous photo of US troops emerging from trenches and heading towards a mushroom that is just forming as part of the Desert Rock series of exercises. Another, equally iconic, was the fragment of American film chronicles showing the SAC strategic bomber pilots who – accompanied by the howling of sirens – run towards their machines.

In November (or more precisely – November 14) anno domini 1952, in Great Britain the weekly charts were published for the first time. At number 1 was – and would remain for the next 9 weeks – Al Martino, with the song Here in my Heart. While the UK Singles Chart was not a memorable fact, the author of the text below is of the opinion that at least two other events are as important to him – he would even dare to say that they were perhaps even more important.

On 29th August, almost exactly four years after the use of the weapon by the United States, the USSR conducted its first nuclear test, the RDS-1. It seems that for at least part of the US Establishment, the speed at which the Soviet nuclear project progressed was a surprise. While no one in Washington had any doubts that the Soviets would sooner or later develop their own nuclear project, it was usually assumed that both the first test and then the road to operationalising the new weapon would take the Soviets many years (1953 being one common estimate).

Przed 6 sierpnia 1945 roku przyszłość Bernarda Brodiego zdawała się mniej więcej stabilna; wojna w Europie dobiegła końca; wojna na Pacyfiku prędzej czy później się skończy, prawdopodobnie w następstwie długiej i krwawej kampanii na Wyspach Japońskich. Brodie będzie kontynuował karierę teoretyka zajmującego się strategią morską na University of Chicago. Jednak 6 sierpnia nad Hiroszimą po raz pierwszy – i przedostatni, jak na razie – użyta została broń jądrowa.