DEEP STATE

IN SECRET UNDERSEA LOCATIONS, AMERICA'S FLEET OF NUCLEAR SUBMARINES SILENTLY PREPARES FOR THE NEXT SUPERPOWER CONFLICT. GAINING UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS TO THESE RARELY GLIMPSED VESSELS AND THEIR COMMANDERS, VANITY FAIR REPORTS ON THE LINCHPIN OF THE NATION'S STRATEGIC ARSENAL

- ADAM CIRALSKY

UNDER COVER OF darkness, I boarded a Navy vessel at a heavily guarded military base along the Eastern Seaboard. The location and time of departure, as well as the direction and distance of travel, were unknown to me. Adding to the sense of secrecy, a towering sailor in camouflage stood in the rain, examining my belongings for electronics that might leave a digital trail an adversary could intercept and exploit.

Buffeted by strong winds and high Atlantic seas, the support ship sailed through the night for more than 15 storm-tossed hours toward a destination somewhere off the continental shelf.

Just after dawn, a sleek, inky object appeared in the distance, right above the waterline. It was the protruding bridge of what sailors call a "boomer"-a submarine armed to the gills with nuclear missiles- which is considered the most lethal, stealthy, and survivable weapon in America's strategic arsenal.

Photographer Philip Montgomery and I had been granted permission to chronicle life aboard a boomer at a perilous time.

Our embed was unique: The arms and technology on board, along with the ship's routines and missions, are among the government's most closely guarded secrets. We'd been told that the number of civilians who had been given this level of access (carrying cameras, no less) was roughly the same as that who have walked on the moon.

Last summer, when I'd placed a request for the voyage, America was confronting two superpower threats: Beijing's increasingly bold advances in the South China Sea and Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Then, in October, the Israel-Hamas war added new urgency. US warships were drawn