ByeBye Diesels

[RetroPug]

Nuclear propulsion allows a submarine to remain on operations without refuelling for huge lengths of time
Not using nuclear power to power a new submarine is designing it to be at a tactical disadvantage from the offset until someone comes up with something even better.

The germans and the scandis (and the ruskies) are all investing in diesel boats which can be quieter than equivalent nucs.
They dont have range, but they are capable of loitering just as well if not better since they can do that on batteries and fuel cells.
But a missile sub is about hiding the missiles. It's operational range doesn't need to be wide when the missile has a 7500mile radius of operation.
The point is that it's not a fat stationary target like a silo.
It could in somewhere in the north sea. It doesn't have to go far to be a strategic weapon/asset.
And for the price of one nuc you can have several diesels. Maintenance is cheaper naturally and you can have more boats cycling in/out of port to combat the lack of endurance.

A hunter killer as a nuc sure. If the task is patrolling the worlds oceans. But if it's coastal defense then again a diesel should be ok.
Going into Cold War II I'm sure having both types (missile and hunter) being nuc will be an advantage.
But it is a tremendous cost.

Issues with this solution? How to sterilise huge volumes of people especially outside the western world.

Give them something in return. Like money. No reason to limit it outside of the western world either.

If non-nuclear submarines cannot travel far while undetectable and submerged and are restricted to a few hundred miles around the port and whilst staying undetectable and submerged they must either sit idle or return then surely if they are known to operate out of a certain port they will not be that robust of a defence. Yes, they can stay still and be ready to launch but that only works if you want to hit targets that are within that range and then once you've fired you must either a) submerge and stay where you are, b) submerge and race back to a known location (port) c) change location whilst on the surface.

If the enemy is switched on enough they will be able to to locate and attack the submarine in all three cases.

A nuclear submarine could fire a half payload of missiles and then disappear and still be a threat. Is it still defending our coastline or is it now in their backyard waiting to strike pre-emptively? They don't know, and if they guess, they'll not find its location anyway and if ports are being attacked it doesn't have to return and be destroyed as well.

I completely agree though, it is a terrifying amount of money and the case could be made by someone that we don't need these capabilities. I wouldn't pretend to know whether or not we do really.