![\"Attack](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/attack-subs.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/h4>\nHistory\u2019s three great submarine campaigns include the First Battle of the Atlantic, the Second Battle of the Atlantic, and the U.S. Navy\u2019s war against Japanese commerce in World War II. The contestants fought these campaigns through asymmetrical means, with submarines doing battle against aircraft and surface escorts.<\/p>\n
But the greatest true<\/em> submarine campaign never (or only intermittently) went \u201chot.\u201d Waged with advanced, streamlined submarines, hunting each other from the polar ice cap to the Eastern seaboard, the Cold War undersea \u201cgame\u201d lasted for over three decades.<\/p>\n In case of real war, these submarines would safeguard\u200a\u2014\u200aor destroy\u200a\u2014\u200aNATO\u2019s trans-Atlantic lifeline, and would protect or sink much of the nuclear deterrent of America, Russia, Britain, and France.<\/p>\n So what were the best submarines of the Cold War era? For the purposes of this list, we\u2019re excluding ballistic missiles submarines<\/a> or boomers, which have an entirely different mission from attack boats, built for different requirements.<\/p>\n Instead, this list will focus on submarines optimized for killing surface ships or other submarines.<\/p>\n