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Originally Posted by Legbreaker
And I still am. There is NOTHING to say there is only one warhead and it dropped on any particular day. It specifically states "not necessarily as a single weapon".
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It clearly states a 1 Mt warhead was used on Norfolk/Portsmouth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
Was it one warhead? Maybe. But it's also just as possible there were multiple warheads. We just don't know for sure.
Most of the likely Soviet missiles carried multiple warheads, and the distance between targets of each warhead is limited to a few hundred kilometres. There are only a handful of other targets within that possible area (all 0.5MT), so where did the other warheads go? Are Soviet missiles equipped with warheads of varying yields all within the same bus, or is it more likely that two 0.5MT warheads hit the Norfolk area? My money is on the latter, but that's just my opinion and I freely admit that may not be the case - we'll never know.
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The individual yield of Soviet nuclear warheads deployed on their missiles during the Cold War is even today a matter of contention. Many Soviet missiles were MIRV capable, but I only know of one missile which specifically carried a 1.0 Mt warhead, and that was the SS-N-6 with a single warhead. The American's, Chinese, British and French did not mix and match the yields of the warheads on their missiles, and I have yet see evidence that the Soviets did either. If you know of a source that shows they did I will gladly stand corrected.
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Originally Posted by Legbreaker
As for conventional weapons attacks, do the Soviets not possess sub, ship or aircraft launched cruise missiles just like many other nations? Conventional weapons are possible. They're just not as effective as a nuke, but may be exactly what's required at certain points through the war.
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They do but submarines, ships and aircraft also have to get in range of their target to launch a cruise missile. How hostile do you think the North Atlantic would be for the Soviet Air Force and Navy in 1997?. No Soviet ship is going to be able to penetrate the GIUK Gap to break out into the Atlantic and approach the US Eastern Seaboard, in fact its unlikely that any Soviet submarine would be able to do it either given the level of anti-submarine forces that the US and NATO have in Northern waters. And then they have to breach the heavy defended naval and anti-submarine cordon around America's largest naval base stretching hundreds of miles out into the Atlantic.
As for an air attack, do the Soviets posses stealth bombers? Because there is no way that any Soviet bomber would get any way near the continental US in wartime.