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Link Posted: 9/4/2023 12:57:06 AM EST
[#1]
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Quoted:

That was us sending a message that if Saudi's don't play. Ive we can pull protection.
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This can't really be dismissed.


Nor can the surprising vulnerability in KSA by PAC-2 to Iranian/Houthi drones.  Or did we all just forget about that tank farm going up in smoke?  Was it a case---a la Stark---of just not turning the goddamn thing on?

That was us sending a message that if Saudi's don't play. Ive we can pull protection.

Well they’ve forgotten the message again.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 1:02:27 AM EST
[#2]
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Same reason we did Saddam. Threat to the petrodollar.
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Personally I think our leadership today seems to rule based off Twitter. I don't see any semblance of a coherent strategy in Ukraine today. We are still really good at war but not so good at what happens after.

Edit- and I still have no idea why we went and did Libya

Same reason we did Saddam. Threat to the petrodollar.
He took one too many passes at Condi and she called in a favor.  He died in a ditch with a stick up his ass.....don't creep on Condi.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 1:04:57 AM EST
[#3]
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Quoted:
He took one too many passes at Condi and she called in a favor.  He died in a ditch with a stick up his ass.....don't creep on Condi.
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Never "fall for" a psyop. Got it
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 7:39:04 AM EST
[#4]
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Condosleezza Rice helped justify Desert Storm and "shock and awe" because she didn't want to wait and see a "mushroom cloud" over NYC. So she advocated the Gulf War. They must of been worried that Saddam Hussein would get a nuke in somehow. Did he have ICBM'S?
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No, but nasty rumors still surround the 9/11 hijackers, and whether or not they were actually Saudi. See, strange coincidence that the guys who supposedly were the hijackers were found to be alive after the attacks and were being accused of being, or something to that effect.

Far be it for me to suggest that the actual hijackers would pretend to be someone else in order to procure visas for pilot simulator training in the US, on the particular model of aircraft they flew that fateful day. Real skilled pilots who had experience in low level flight at low altitude and heavy. Like, maybe military?

There was quite the celebration going on in Iraq they day it happened. Just saying. Plus, architectural models of the twin towers on the roof of the building where the 93 bombers were staying were discovered the same day as the attacks. Almost like the overt attack drew the first responders in and then maybe the building was intentionally brought down on them.

But they would never hijack a plane to air burst a nuclear weapon over a city, would they? Besides, the MOPP level was dropped before the coalition troops even got to Baghdad so that must mean there was no wmds and no point to the invasion.

Then, there was that famous mural of Saddam with the twin towers in the background. But it was Saudis, because they found a passport.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 12:00:06 PM EST
[#5]
This was our last atmospheric air drop test from a B-52. Operation Dominic Housatonic nuclear fireball 9 Mt. Advanced design in 1962. Just think we have today.

Detonated at 12,130 feet

Housatonic nuclear fireball 9 Mt



Attachment Attached File



Attachment Attached File


Link Posted: 9/4/2023 12:01:57 PM EST
[#6]
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Quoted:
He took one too many passes at Condi and she called in a favor.  He died in a ditch with a stick up his ass.....don't creep on Condi.
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Quoted:
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Quoted:

Personally I think our leadership today seems to rule based off Twitter. I don't see any semblance of a coherent strategy in Ukraine today. We are still really good at war but not so good at what happens after.

Edit- and I still have no idea why we went and did Libya

Same reason we did Saddam. Threat to the petrodollar.
He took one too many passes at Condi and she called in a favor.  He died in a ditch with a stick up his ass.....don't creep on Condi.


You are confusing Saddam with Ghaddafi
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 12:12:07 PM EST
[#7]
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I was under the impression ICBMs have been stood down from being always ready to launch as some part of an agreement.

Am I wrong about this or is this a major escalation in nuclear force readiness.
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You are wrong. Wildly wrong. That was never the case.

Jesus, you were in the Airforce?

Pilots
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 12:21:40 PM EST
[#8]
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Quoted:
This was our last atmospheric air drop test from a B-52. Operation Dominic Housatonic nuclear fireball 9 Mt. Advanced design in 1962. Just think we have today.

Detonated at 12,130 feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXm-X1-QjNg


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-51-28_Operat-2942445.JPG


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-50-28_Operat-2942446.JPG

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We have way smaller nukes now, yet far more accurate. No real reason for big nukes.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 12:22:13 PM EST
[#9]
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 12:38:19 PM EST
[#10]
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Maybe they should learn some Russian? Way I heard it, threatening us is exactly what they are doing.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 1:24:17 PM EST
[#11]
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You are confusing Saddam with Ghaddafi
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No I meant Ghaddafi.

Saddam took a long fall on a short rope.


Link Posted: 9/4/2023 1:36:10 PM EST
[#12]
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Quoted:
This was our last atmospheric air drop test from a B-52. Operation Dominic Housatonic nuclear fireball 9 Mt. Advanced design in 1962. Just think we have today.

Detonated at 12,130 feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXm-X1-QjNg


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-51-28_Operat-2942445.JPG


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-50-28_Operat-2942446.JPG

View Quote


It is an amazing design.  AIUI (and I probably understand it poorly), it's basically applying the levitated core techniques and advantages to the fusion secondary.  Wouldn't be surprised if the design has since been considerably optimized via simulation.  You'd want something that efficient for either a directed-energy device (Orion fuel) or something like Teller's x-ray laser.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 2:16:19 PM EST
[#13]
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Quoted:

We have way smaller nukes now, yet far more accurate. No real reason for big nukes.
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Unless your Russia.

Link Posted: 9/4/2023 2:30:05 PM EST
[#14]
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Quoted:

We have way smaller nukes now, yet far more accurate. No real reason for big nukes.
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Quoted:
Quoted:
This was our last atmospheric air drop test from a B-52. Operation Dominic Housatonic nuclear fireball 9 Mt. Advanced design in 1962. Just think we have today.

Detonated at 12,130 feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXm-X1-QjNg


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-51-28_Operat-2942445.JPG


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-50-28_Operat-2942446.JPG


We have way smaller nukes now, yet far more accurate. No real reason for big nukes.

We went with smaller nukes because:
1. We mastered accuracy, MIRVs and had a counterforce strategy.
2. ABM treaty and the difficulty/economic inefficiency of ABM

Ripple was going to be a way to overcome terminal phase interception. You make a hyperefficient warhead so you can throw insane yields that can destroy many hard targets despite being detonated at high altitude.

A large and advanced Ripple warhead could conceivably take out a chunk of a state because they are scalable to multi-GIGAton yields. That is not efficient, but it would be effective.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 3:24:25 PM EST
[#15]
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Quoted:
This was our last atmospheric air drop test from a B-52. Operation Dominic Housatonic nuclear fireball 9 Mt. Advanced design in 1962. Just think we have today.

Detonated at 12,130 feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXm-X1-QjNg


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-51-28_Operat-2942445.JPG


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-50-28_Operat-2942446.JPG

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Did we really stop the design? With todays advanced super computers could not as you said further advance our designs using the ripple effect?
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 3:30:39 PM EST
[#16]
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We have way smaller nukes now, yet far more accurate. No real reason for big nukes.



Unless your Russia.

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/03/15/14/68735123-0-image-a-17_1678890633945.jpg

Which makes one wonder how advanced are their designs? They may not have the ability to model new designs so that would leave them having to build bigger, I do see how allot of radioactive water in a tsunami would be beneficial making cleanup and rebuilding deadly. If Russia ever fielded many of those I’d rethink living in a costal region susceptible to tsunami floods.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 5:05:57 PM EST
[#17]
What really keeps the peace is nuclear missile subs. They are extremely hard to find and let's just say they were able to find all but one of them and take them out. When that last one fires off its load your country is no longer going to exist. Even if no nukes reached Russia, they would die a lingering death due to all of the radiation around the world contaminating everything. The living would envy the dead.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 5:12:04 PM EST
[#18]
Russian State TV Threatens Nuclear Strike on US
A Kremlin propagandist has issued the latest nuclear threat against the West regarding the war in Ukraine, warning that the U.S. could be in danger of a Russian missile attack.
Igor Korotchenko, editor of the newspaper National Defense and a regular guest on the Russia 1 channel where guests have repeatedly called for strikes against Ukraine's allies, took exception to criticism of Russian conduct in the war...

https://www.newsweek.com/kremlin-nuclear-strike-us-popov-korotchenko-1824285
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 5:39:14 PM EST
[#19]
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 5:45:28 PM EST
[#20]
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 6:36:51 PM EST
[#21]
Well Putin knows the war with Iraq was really about oil and he doesn't have time for the BS. Only the US could drag out a war to 20 years because they have no idea how to exit. Putin is over toying with Ukraine because it's not about Ukraine.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 7:10:39 PM EST
[#22]
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What really keeps the peace is nuclear missile subs. They are extremely hard to find and let's just say they were able to find all but one of them and take them out. When that last one fires off its load your country is no longer going to exist. Even if no nukes reached Russia, they would die a lingering death due to all of the radiation around the world contaminating everything. The living would envy the dead.
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Link Posted: 9/4/2023 8:05:05 PM EST
[#23]
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Good. Let’s settle this once and for all.
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What he said.
Link Posted: 9/4/2023 8:16:13 PM EST
[#24]
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What really keeps the peace is nuclear missile subs. They are extremely hard to find and let's just say they were able to find all but one of them and take them out. When that last one fires off its load your country is no longer going to exist. Even if no nukes reached Russia, they would die a lingering death due to all of the radiation around the world contaminating everything. The living would envy the dead.



Well it's sort of the right idea, if you believe in Nuclear winter
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 7:05:16 AM EST
[#25]
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Well Putin knows the war with Iraq was really about oil and he doesn't have time for the BS. Only the US could drag out a war to 20 years because they have no idea how to exit. Putin is over toying with Ukraine because it's not about Ukraine.
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He’s on day 559 of his 3 day war that he’s been “done toying around with” for over a year.

Got anything else?
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 7:22:48 AM EST
[#26]
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Bring back the Titan II.
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You can live next to that bitch.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 7:24:04 AM EST
[#27]
Shouldn't have killed MX.  


Link Posted: 9/5/2023 7:34:13 AM EST
[#28]
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Shouldn't have killed MX.  


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I doubt the USAF could have afforded it. It was one of the last weapons systems out of the "price is no object school."

For better or worse we do a better job of guessing the costs of big systems. Some, like MMIII have been a boon to the taxpayer, and others, like the B-58 were not so much.

Had PK gotten to a one-for-one replacement for MMIII, it may have seen a breakeven, but even then it would have been lots of capability for what we needed.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 7:44:40 AM EST
[#29]
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Quoted:

We went with smaller nukes because:
1. We mastered accuracy, MIRVs and had a counterforce strategy.
2. ABM treaty and the difficulty/economic inefficiency of ABM

Ripple was going to be a way to overcome terminal phase interception. You make a hyperefficient warhead so you can throw insane yields that can destroy many hard targets despite being detonated at high altitude.

A large and advanced Ripple warhead could conceivably take out a chunk of a state because they are scalable to multi-GIGAton yields. That is not efficient, but it would be effective.
View Quote


"Delivery system:  Backyard."

Link Posted: 9/5/2023 7:51:05 AM EST
[#30]
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Quoted:

There are some good slow-motion videos of the Dominic Housatonic shot like the one you posted. It's an excellent demonstration of the early superluminous fireball, then it getting shrouded in "smog" until the isothermal sphere is revealed at hydrodynamic separation. Even though the fireball has cooled significantly, the energy is transmitted by photons in the visible spectrum to which air is transparent and you get much more intense "burst" which can last for many seconds. This is when you get all the heat-related damage from the blast. The amount of heat transferred to exposed skin even at some distance is equivalent to holding an oxy-acetylene torch to your skin.
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Quoted:
Quoted:
This was our last atmospheric air drop test from a B-52. Operation Dominic Housatonic nuclear fireball 9 Mt. Advanced design in 1962. Just think we have today.

Detonated at 12,130 feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXm-X1-QjNg

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-51-28_Operat-2942445.JPG

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-50-28_Operat-2942446.JPG

There are some good slow-motion videos of the Dominic Housatonic shot like the one you posted. It's an excellent demonstration of the early superluminous fireball, then it getting shrouded in "smog" until the isothermal sphere is revealed at hydrodynamic separation. Even though the fireball has cooled significantly, the energy is transmitted by photons in the visible spectrum to which air is transparent and you get much more intense "burst" which can last for many seconds. This is when you get all the heat-related damage from the blast. The amount of heat transferred to exposed skin even at some distance is equivalent to holding an oxy-acetylene torch to your skin.


From Gladstone, and the scaling equations for effects that Sublette reproduced, large (>500 kt) thermonuclear devices are basically giant heat rays.  Their heat effects far outstrip either prompt ionizing radiation or blast.  

I'd have to open nukemap to remember, but an explosion like Housatonic has thermal pulse on par with arc flash levels (>40 cal/cm^2) for something like 10 miles.  Just an insane amount of heat energy.  Doesn't take nearly that much to give you 3rd-degree burns, of course.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 7:54:59 AM EST
[#31]
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I doubt the USAF could have afforded it. It was one of the last weapons systems out of the "price is no object school."

For better or worse we do a better job of guessing the costs of big systems. Some, like MMIII have been a boon to the taxpayer, and others, like the B-58 were not so much.

Had PK gotten to a one-for-one replacement for MMIII, it may have seen a breakeven, but even then it would have been lots of capability for what we needed.
View Quote
About 3 F35s worth.  We had a bunch of them in service but negotiated them away.  

The ICBM leg of the triad is the least important and has been for a long time. So I guess if we had to pick MX or B2 or D5, we chose correctly.

The bombers are capable of slow escalation and the tridents are the least vulnerable.  There really isn't much to observe with a MM3 that can be used as an escalation, yet they are in a fixed location with a single war head and most vulnerable to a counter force strike.  

Hopefully all the dev work that went into MX eventually got rolled into MM3 upgrades.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:05:05 AM EST
[#32]
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Quoted:


From Gladstone, and the scaling equations for effects that Sublette reproduced, large (>500 kt) thermonuclear devices are basically giant heat rays.  Their heat effects far outstrip either prompt ionizing radiation or blast.  

I'd have to open nukemap to remember, but an explosion like Housatonic has thermal pulse on par with arc flash levels (>40 cal/cm^2) for something like 10 miles.  Just an insane amount of heat energy.  Doesn't take nearly that much to give you 3rd-degree burns, of course.
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Wineraner now you went and let the cat out of the bag as to what has really created global warming.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:09:41 AM EST
[#33]
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:12:26 AM EST
[#34]
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:12:47 AM EST
[#35]
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:16:28 AM EST
[#36]
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Quoted:


Well it's sort of the right idea, if you believe in Nuclear winter
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Quoted:
Quoted:
What really keeps the peace is nuclear missile subs. They are extremely hard to find and let's just say they were able to find all but one of them and take them out. When that last one fires off its load your country is no longer going to exist. Even if no nukes reached Russia, they would die a lingering death due to all of the radiation around the world contaminating everything. The living would envy the dead.



Well it's sort of the right idea, if you believe in Nuclear winter
No sorry, I'm not a libtard faggot.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:17:11 AM EST
[#37]
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It had superb accuracy, but the new W71A1 modification makes it at least as accurate. It's also pointless since we're now down-loading all of our MIRV'd missiles anyway. Most MMIII's carry only a single warhead instead of the usual 3 nowadays. Trident D-5s carry 4-5 instead of 8.
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The far more interesting development is the super tiny warheads on D5s.  Like 5kt.

I can't understand the use case.  Seems like anything worth nuking with an SLBM is worth nuking big.  Or at least not worth developing a new warhead for.

Any hostile SLBM launch would be extremely provocative, So it would seem like an all or nothing type of situation.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:21:04 AM EST
[#38]
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The land based part of the triad forces the enemy to allocate resources to engage it.  It has value.  
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It will always have a speed of response value. There are also more esoteric targeting considerations that are ameliorated by a fixed site.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:31:44 AM EST
[#39]
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You are wrong. Wildly wrong. That was never the case.

Jesus, you were in the Airforce?

Pilots
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Quoted:
I was under the impression ICBMs have been stood down from being always ready to launch as some part of an agreement.

Am I wrong about this or is this a major escalation in nuclear force readiness.


You are wrong. Wildly wrong. That was never the case.

Jesus, you were in the Airforce?

Pilots


I was out before any of this happened, IIRC.

I guess it was just the manned bombers on alert that stood down.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:33:59 AM EST
[#40]
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Quoted:


It is an amazing design.  AIUI (and I probably understand it poorly), it's basically applying the levitated core techniques and advantages to the fusion secondary.  Wouldn't be surprised if the design has since been considerably optimized via simulation.  You'd want something that efficient for either a directed-energy device (Orion fuel) or something like Teller's x-ray laser.
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Quoted:
Quoted:
This was our last atmospheric air drop test from a B-52. Operation Dominic Housatonic nuclear fireball 9 Mt. Advanced design in 1962. Just think we have today.

Detonated at 12,130 feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXm-X1-QjNg


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-51-28_Operat-2942445.JPG


https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32274/Screenshot_2023-09-04_at_09-50-28_Operat-2942446.JPG



It is an amazing design.  AIUI (and I probably understand it poorly), it's basically applying the levitated core techniques and advantages to the fusion secondary.  Wouldn't be surprised if the design has since been considerably optimized via simulation.  You'd want something that efficient for either a directed-energy device (Orion fuel) or something like Teller's x-ray laser.


Is there a reason they could not have continued testing that design with underground nudets because they kept testing underground well into the 1980s.

They were testing something for more than 20 years after 1962, they must have been testing something.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:39:50 AM EST
[#41]
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Quoted:
What really keeps the peace is nuclear missile subs. They are extremely hard to find and let's just say they were able to find all but one of them and take them out. When that last one fires off its load your country is no longer going to exist. Even if no nukes reached Russia, they would die a lingering death due to all of the radiation around the world contaminating everything. The living would envy the dead.
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Are they really that hard to find?

We map underground ancient ruins from space for fun, what makes you think subs can’t be found by space platforms looking for magnetic anomalies underwater, after the entire oceans have been magnetically mapped.

Not to mention all the sensors underwater. The US knew that carbon fiber sub imploded long before the people on the ship doing the monitoring knew. They admitted so.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:49:43 AM EST
[#42]
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Quoted:
What really keeps the peace is nuclear missile subs. They are extremely hard to find and let's just say they were able to find all but one of them and take them out. When that last one fires off its load your country is no longer going to exist. Even if no nukes reached Russia, they would die a lingering death due to all of the radiation around the world contaminating everything. The living would envy the dead.
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You realize a handful of countries detonated thousands of nuclear weapons most air burst and none of that happened right?
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:51:58 AM EST
[#43]
It’s Russian- is it even functional?
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:57:21 AM EST
[#44]
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I was out before any of this happened, IIRC.

I guess it was just the manned bombers on alert that stood down.
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You might be thinking of "de-targeting."
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:57:49 AM EST
[#45]
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Our primaries are already ridiculously small. Think of something like a B83 that has an approximate yield of 1.3Mt. Its diameter is around 18" and the physics package has an even smaller diameter than that. This is a picture I took at the US Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque:

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/38579/10790.JPG

The large part of the aft body is consumed by the parachute. The W80 warhead on the ALCM-86:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DSUU22AXkAASawo?format=jpg&name=large

ETA: Found a cool picture of a W80 being loaded into a ALCM-86:

https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/W80loading.jpg
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Quoted:

Did we really stop the design? With todays advanced super computers could not as you said further advance our designs using the ripple effect?

Our primaries are already ridiculously small. Think of something like a B83 that has an approximate yield of 1.3Mt. Its diameter is around 18" and the physics package has an even smaller diameter than that. This is a picture I took at the US Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque:

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/38579/10790.JPG

The large part of the aft body is consumed by the parachute. The W80 warhead on the ALCM-86:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DSUU22AXkAASawo?format=jpg&name=large

ETA: Found a cool picture of a W80 being loaded into a ALCM-86:

https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/W80loading.jpg


The US Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque is an amazing museum.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 8:58:38 AM EST
[#46]
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 9:10:12 AM EST
[#47]
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The majority were underground tests. High-altitude airbursts would produce relatively little in the way of fallout, but in any nuclear exchange - a counterforce scenario - most would be ground bursts by relatively large weapons numbering around 1000. That would create significant global fallout. Nuclear winter is real.
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devastating fallout and nuclear winter aren't the same phenomenon, although they could occur together.

devastating fallout from ground bursts is likely.  Nuclear winter pre-supposes that all the warheads are deployable, which they won't be, and that they all work, which they won't, and that they are all large, which most of ours aren't.

As you said I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed......
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 1:57:01 PM EST
[#48]
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The US Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque is an amazing museum.
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Agreed. I went in not expecting much but it could have been a full day.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 1:59:17 PM EST
[#49]
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Quoted:
devastating fallout and nuclear winter aren't the same phenomenon, although they could occur together.

devastating fallout from ground bursts is likely.  Nuclear winter pre-supposes that all the warheads are deployable, which they won't be, and that they all work, which they won't, and that they are all large, which most of ours aren't.

As you said I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed......
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Less likely under the counterforce doctrine too, I'd imagine. If cities and chemical plants burned, I bet there would be a lot more smoke than some plains states fields. Imagine half the trains going East Palestine.
Link Posted: 9/5/2023 2:51:51 PM EST
[#50]
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Less likely under the counterforce doctrine too, I'd imagine. If cities and chemical plants burned, I bet there would be a lot more smoke than some plains states fields. Imagine half the trains going East Palestine.
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It would be a mess for sure.  But nuclear winter requires putting a whole lotta shit in the upper atmosphere and having it stay there for a while.   Say with a super volcano or asteroid strike.

Hundreds of nukes might not have the ass to get that job done.    If humanity hits "fuck it" and launches them all, maybe..
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