These are the six countries that have nuclear submarines?

As tensions between world powers deepen, European leaders and the public are increasingly interested in new and high-tech military systems, including nuclear-powered submarines.

A nuclear submarine is a sensitive technology currently used only by six countries: France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, China and India.

But recently they have attracted more attention. Last week, French military forces opened fire against unidentified drones flying over a nuclear submarine facility in Bretanja.

And in November, the U.S. government said it would support South Korea in building its attack nuclear submarines to counter North Korea a major change in politics, given that Washington avoided spreading nuclear naval drive technology for decades.

The U.S. has long restricted the transfer of nuclear technology to the United Kingdom, which has been providing assistance since 1958. The United States opened for Australia in 2021.

Last month, Russia also sent a new nuclear submarine class called Khabarovsk.

What are nuclear submarines?
The term nuclear submarine could refer to either a submarine empowered by a nuclear reactor or a nuclear - carrying submarine, regardless of how it is empowered.

This double sense is often used freely and can lead to confusion.

Nuclear energy submarines use heat from a boat reactor to generate steam and turn their turbines, giving them extraordinary stability.

They can stay underwater for months and need to surface only for food and water supplies for their crews, making them much harder to detect.

To have this enormous amount of energy for a long time is the key to their being important to countries that have nuclear power submarines”, Next News Hans Liuöng, a professor in defence and security systems science at Swedish Defence University, told Euronews.

Rather, a nuclear - armed submarine is not necessarily nuclear.

It could be a conventional ship with an electric-power engine carrying nuclear missiles. A nuclear weapons-enabled platform can also be nuclear energy, as is the case with France's Le Triomphont class submarines.

Liuéng also said that “we should assume that [Russia's Khabarovscu] can carry nuclear weapons”.

Does Europe need more nuclear submarines because of Russian aggression?
While nuclear energy submarines may be powerful in secret missions and surveillance, they may not be appropriate for the kind of conflicts Europe is facing today, according to Lewêng.

When war in Ukraine is considered, for example, the most critical battlefields for Europe and NATO allies are the land and sea, which are usually the most shallow and the nearest “on the coast of”, Lewung said.

That means the development of a nuclear energy subservative “is not the main activity of the Navy”, he added.

He said that shallow waters and limited geography in the Baltic region make it difficult for such ships to operate without detection. Meanwhile, missions in the deep Mediterranean usually do not require the size, stability, or complexity of a nuclear - energy submarine.

Oil and electric submarines tend to be smaller and cheaper to maintain. Liuéng believes that Europe is good even without the need to invest in deciding more of them.

For most European countries, it is far more important to have some conventional submarines than to have specific specific specifications that have these» submarines, he said.

Nuclear energy submarines also come with practical challenges. Their reactors occupy too much space inside the ship and their fuel supply may last up to a year, as they must be dismantled to replace the old fuel source with the new one.

However, he believes that these submarines have a place in Europe's broader view of Europe's defence, especially when it comes to operations far away in the Atlantic, given that Russia's hybrid war tactics present more threats to European territories such as Greenland and Iceland.

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The nuclear energy submarines may be among them, but other “, such as conventional submarines and surface ships, is needed, he added.

While Liwéng does not view nuclear submarines as an urgent priority for Europe, he said recent developments worldwide could have side effects on Europe's security environment.

The nuclear energy submarine is more of a case of power projection over the” globe, he said.

So countries like Russia have that kind of vision and it certainly affects... their attitude towards the US. And of course, Russia's attitude towards the US affects the way the United States operates in Europe”. /Periscope/