So I am watching a show on bunkers etc. What keeps coming to my mind was the build projects are difficult to conceal, have fairly limited resources, are fixed locations and if known can be targeted with modern weapons fairly easily.

So I got to thinking if I was a powerful leader of a well developed country why not a large nuclear submarine or small fleet of such to act as small, mobile, almost totally self sustainable, hidden bunkers?

-They can be built as they are today without anybody really batting an eye.

-They are completely mobile (think Airforce 1 under water)

-They are VERY well hidden and have a HUGE hiding area.

-They are almost indefinitely sustainable between the nuclear power and desalination of water. Food is a limiting factor of course but I would think they would be able to come up with some kind of resupply system and in the most dire circumstance, could you not fish/get some food from the ocean itself?

-They can fight back. Even if you built a purpose build submarine bunker if you will you would likely still give in a limited missile/torpedo capability

-They can be stationed fairly near many places a leader might be.

I know this is more flight of fancy more then anything but I just got to musing. I mean you are not going to evacuate every political leader of course but you could easily build something to take more than an Airforce 1 compliment of folks easily and I would assume much more safely as a sub has to be more secure than an aircraft of any kind.

Basically what was portrayed in one of the newer Terminator movies.

A bubblehead might pop in here. But I think the edge of a submarine is that you can submerge and no one will know where you are. They are isolated from the world and they work solo. But to receive communications they have to come up near the surface, float an antenna. If they send communications, well that defeats the purpose of them hiding out as everyone will know their general location. So that's going to put a crimp on the command and control aspect that the president has to exercise.

With air force one, they can have escorts.

I dont know how many spare nuclear subs are lying around but I think it would come down to money. A quick google search looks like it cost over a billion dollars for a new one, not sure how much to retro fit an old one as a bunker. Not to mention the maintenance and upkeep.

Who says we don’t already?

Food is not limited if you have submerged caches...that can be retrieved into torpedo tubes by the ships divers.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
Basically what was portrayed in one of the newer Terminator movies.

And in World War Z, the book, not the POS movie.

How long does a typical deployment on a nuclear sub last? I expect that would be about the duration of its use and usefulness as a bunker. The sub can't maintain or repair itself, and people can only stay cooped up for so long.