File As the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines becomes a serious policy agenda in Korea, the debate needs to go beyond technical, economic, and diplomatic issues to address their military utility and the concrete logic of their employment. Existing discussion, however, has often stopped at the general performance advantages of nuclear-powered submarines, such as extended submerged endurance, high speed, and wide operating range. Systematic analysis of how these capabilities are actually used at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels has been relatively scarce. What are the strategic, operational, and tactical grounds for Korea to possess nuclear-powered submarines, and what operations set them apart from conventional submarines? To answer these questions, this study reviews the historical operational cases of existing nuclear-powered submarine states, including the United States, Russia (the Soviet Union), and the United Kingdom. It classifies these cases into ten types of operations: anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, sea denial, control, protection, and disruption of sea lines of communication, escort operations, SSBN protection, land attack, intelligence warfare, special operations, and deterrence and coercion. By analyzing the strategic logic, operational characteristics, requirements, and specific tactical examples of each type, the study goes beyond simple case collection and systematically presents the full spectrum of missions that nuclear-powered submarines have actually performed.
Building on this comparative analysis, the study explores an operational model for Korean nuclear-powered submarines that responds to the security environment on the Korean Peninsula, particularly North Korea's expanding surface- and underwater-based nuclear threats. Rather than arguing normatively over whether Korea should own such submarines, it offers concrete operational logic drawn from the experience of states that actually operate them, and aims to contribute to the strategic rationale and operational direction of Korea's nuclear-powered submarine construction program.