Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, Issue 45 — page 128: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION And, for the first time, the atomic submarine makes it possible to use underwater craft for more extensive opera- tions than mere torpedoing of ships. Guided missile equipment mounted on the decks makes it a formidable weapon of /and attack. It could easily cross the vastest ocean undetected, surface near an enemy shore, pound the coastal and inland in- stallations, and then retreat to the dark concealment of its abyssal lair. If those missiles took the form of atomic rockets, and they probably would, the atomic submarine becomes a major weapon. ’Planes carrying atomic bombs can be seen and shot down. With sub- marines it is not so easy. The vessel could surface off, say, Sheerness, and lob its missiles onto London almost before we were aware of its existence. All that presupposes that anti-submarine devices remain as they are at present—which is most unlikely, to say the least. For our survival we must introduce new methods of detection and destruction. The price is far greater than in the past. The necessity to counteract the magnetic mine, for example, was not nearly so pressing. Without such counteraction, we would have lost a few more ships and gone without a bit more food. But if we don’t counter- act the atomic submarine, the whole of London may be destroyed! All this can be said about Nautilus, the very first atomic submarine. What can be said about Sea Wolf, the second one that is now being built, incorporating improve- ments in design and perfor- mance learnt from the work on Nautilus? Sea Wolf will have a reactor that runs on medium-speed neutrons, and will have a moderator bath of molten sodium. And what can be said of the submarines of the remote future that will differ from Nautilus and Sea Wolf as much as the Comet differs from the old open- cockpit biplanes ? Naval authorities believe that a whole new era of sea warfare has been opened up by the successful develop- ment of the atomic submarine. It may be that, in the long run, surface ships will become entirely obsolete as weapons of war. One can envisage enormous submarines that can carry great numbers of troops—to advance stealthily in the depths of the oceans, 127 comiclooks.corn