Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
I wouldn't be so quick there. We only know of the larger warhead - the smaller ones (less than 0.5KT from memory) are no listed in the books except for a very few exceptions.
Just how big a blast would it take to nuke a train yard or distribution centre? I rather doubt it'd need or even justify 0.5kt and up.
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How would a nuke this small be delivered to the continental US? The smaller warheads were not fitted to ICBMs and Tactical Missile Launchers lacked the range to reach the continental US. You couldn't fly BEARS into the launch range of any warhead under 100kt (this is the typical nominal yield of a medium range cruise missile) because the US Airforce would slaughter the bombers before they got to "launch range." 100kt was the typical nominal yield for most sub launched cruise missiles as well. Many of these had a range of less than 1000km which means they could not reach the middle of the US from safe launch positions in the ocean (this is the reason that the Boomers exist). You do realize that a half kiloton nominal yield is the payload of an artillery shell, small aircraft-delivered bomb, or rocket. The 8" M110 howitzer I served on had a remanufactured round with a nominal yield of 20kt. This is a MAJOR flaw in the original Twilight2000. The authors had very limited knowledge of the nuclear capability and strategy of the countries involved. For instance, IF Russia had wanted to cripple the US without triggering a full exchange, they would have detonated their nukes in the stratosphere and knocked out the US with an EMP. The problem is that we regarded ANY launch as a full attack and would have launched our missiles at the USSR (because we would have no way of knowing that the Russian ICBMs would detonate in the stratosphere). In fact, an EMP attack was part and parcel to a Soviet Launch of ICBMs.