Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
What if that 1 MT worth of nuke wasn't just one warhead, but the total of several warheads lobbed at the area? I'd think that would be a more efficient way of taking out a set of facilities such as this.
It's also possible 2 or three times that payload was launched, but the additional warheads failed to arrive due to interception or launch vehicle failure. I think I read somewhere that only 85% was expected to arrive on target in a best case (for the attacker) scenario.
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Howling Wilderness states that the Soviet's launched a 1 Mt nuclear warhead against Norfolk/Portsmouth.
If this is the case then it must have been a single warhead as the Soviet Union only ever developed one type of 1.0 Mt nuclear warhead.
They were deployed on the SS-N-6 SLBM's (Mod 1 & 2) that were carried on Yankee 1 and Yankee II submarines. The SS-N-6 was developed in the 1960's and early 1970's with a range of between 2,400 and 3,200 km and a CEP of 1.9 km (Mod 1) and 1.3 to 1.8 (Mod 2). So due to their relatively limited range in comparison to Soviet ICBM's and newer and more capable Soviet SLBM's the Yankee submarines could not launch their SS-N-6 missiles in the relative safety of Arctic waters.
So they would have to penetrate NATO anti-submarine defences along the GIUK Gap in the North Atlantic to get within launching range of the US Eastern Seaboard, and then launch their older and less accurate SLBM's while being stalked by powerful fleets of US and British nuclear powered hunter killer submarines. Also due to the age and relative accuracy of the SS-N-6 missile and the fact that their intended target of Norfolk and Portsmouth with other bases in the area are located on or near the shoreline of Chesapeake Bay, there is a high (50%) probability that the SS-N-6 missile will land offshore in Chesapeake Bay, or could in fact land on the sparsely inhabited Delmarva Peninsula or even further out in the Atlantic Ocean.