Submarines are the ultimate weapon of modern warfare and the most secret asset of any force. The submarine is a versatile platform, which can project military power, present a phycological threat to an adversary's surface fleet, support land-based covert operations and when required deliver lethal force. NATO forces rarely comment about their submarine operations and as China and Russia invest in new boats, both the US and UK fleets are preparing for the future. The US Navy has nuclear ballistic submarines permanently deployed in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the UK is known to have at least one ballistic vessel at sea armed with nuclear warheads, while the Russians claim to have as many as five boats deployed at any one time. China has in the past decade commissioned new nuclear and conventional submarines to support its naval forces based in the South China Sea and beyond. Other naval powers with sub