Final answer:
The nuclear deterrent TRIAD is constituted by Submarines, Bombers, and Missiles. It is a military strategy that combines land-based ICBMs, strategic bombers, and SLBMs to provide a secure nuclear deterrent capability.
Step-by-step explanation:
The group that constitutes the nuclear deterrent TRIAD are Submarines, Bombers, and Missiles. This TRIAD is a comprehensive military strategy that ensures a country's ability to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack, consisting of three different platforms for delivering nuclear weapons. These platforms include land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos, strategic bomber aircraft, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). The combination of these three components provides a diversified and layered nuclear deterrent that aims to protect nations by making it nearly impossible for an aggressor to eliminate all means of a counterstrike or retaliation.
The United States, for example, has developed and maintained the nuclear TRIAD for decades. It includes the U.S. Navy's fleet of submarines equipped with SLBMs, hidden underwater and capable of months-long stealthy operations. The U.S. Air Force's strategic bombers, once part of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), were constantly prepared or airborne with nuclear weaponry. And finally, the U.S. Forces maintain numerous missile silos across the country and abroad, ready to respond to any nuclear aggression. The existence of the TRIAD is a cornerstone of nuclear deterrence policy, predicated on the principle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), which posits that the ability of both sides in a nuclear confrontation to inflict an unacceptable level of damage upon the other would prevent catastrophic conflict.
Therefore, the correct answer to the question which of the following groups constitutes the nuclear deterrent TRIAD is B) Submarines, Bombers, Missiles.