30 Massive Warships Didn’t Stand A Chance Against Soviet Russia’s Nuclear Torpedo

Joe 17.

Imagine if you will a calm sea, peaceful blue waters as ships cruise along the surface. Now imagine a massive geyser of water erupting from the sea shooting water high into the sky followed by a giant tidal wave. That is the result of Soviet Russia’s nuclear torpedo, the ultimate sneak attack weapon of mass destruction.

The Cold War was a back and forth exchange between the United States and Russia over who could build the most intimidating weapons of war. The Soviets tried for a new means of delivering nuclear strikes, in the form of a torpedo. In a process that resembled American tests at the Bikini Atoll, the Soviets assembled 30 war vessels in the waters near Novaya Zemlya where hundreds of nuclear weapons were detonated.

The Soviet Navy believed that the stealthiness of a submarine was a superior means of deploying a nuclear weapon rather than jeopardizing a plane to anti-aircraft fire. The results of the nuclear torpedo more commonly known as Joe-17 were surprisingly effective and managed to sink many warships.

This archival footage demonstrates the power of the nuclear torpedo during its testing against the warships.