Here's an idea that doesn't break canon too badly

[raketenjagdpanzer]

One of the more spurious canonical notions is that of the limited nuclear exchange that happens in T2k that leaves an "interesting" amount of the world intact, yet also depletes the number of operational nuclear weapons to the point that Bear's Den and a couple other instances in modules that have nukes notes them as being rare.

What if things like Skyguard, Star Wars and Soviet ABM systems were in place, and while it was a case of "2400 warheads over the pole", only a (relatively) small number of them made it through such systems?

Just throwing that out there for discussion.

It'd make more sense than SIOP not kicking in and a real Apocalypse happening...

[Olefin]

The question may be more why do the Soviets seem to have so few and the US still have a bunch?

If you read some of the US modules it has mentions of MilGov removing nuclear warheads before CivGov could get to them from various locations - but with the Soviet side it sounds like they are almost all gone (for instance see how the Soviets react to three missiles and warheads still intact on the Soviet Sub in Boomer)

Considering other mentions of Soviet warheads missing their targets or malfunctioning did they have to use almost all of their arsenal due to so many misses and malfunctions just to get the results they got (minus whatever the US or Brits or Chinese took out first)?

Or did possibly the French hit them back and take out a significant amoutn of their remaining arsenal after the Soviets nuked the French refineries and ports (and thus explain the relative lack of remaining Soviet warheads)?

[Targan]

Perhaps the greatly superior accuracy of NATO's nuclear weapons resulted in a higher proportion of Soviet missiles being destroyed in their silos? Then again, you'd think that widespread NATO strikes on Soviet launch sites would escalate the exchange to a much greater level than described in canon.

There is a lot more specific canon info available about post-exchange USA than the USSR. Perhaps there are still many warheads intact in the remnants of the Soviet Union but their delivery systems are no longer functional? Also, the USSR covers a vast geographic area and we know that vast tracts of Soviet territory were no longer under central government control by 2000. Hundreds of Soviet nuclear warheads might be in the possession of dozens of factions of various legitimacy.

I don't know much about the durability of ICBMs or what sort of ongoing maintenance they require. How long after standard command and control and supply lines collapse before ICBMs become too dangerous to attempt to launch? Can they sit in their silos for a decade with little to no maintenance and still be safely launched? Obviously warheads designed for more conventional delivery systems would probably be more useful by 2000 (it's probably easier to verify the launch-worthiness of a cruise missile or a strike bomber than it is with an ICBM).

There are definitely canon descriptions of successful ASAT attacks, but not much to suggest that there were comprehensive space-based ASAT systems in place. I wouldn't consider it to be canon-breaking to suggest that limited, experimental space-based ASAT systems were in place at the start of the war. I had an NPC in my last campaign who was proud of the fact that he'd 'killed' a Soviet satellite with an aircraft-launched ASAT missile earlier in the war. Later when those kinds of systems had been expended/destroyed he'd been transferred to Europe as a USAF fighter pilot reinforcement before his F-15 had suffered a critical mechanical failure over Poland.

[schnickelfritz]

I believe the Soviets/Russians has some serious issues with the long term stability of their solid fuel rocket propellant. I tried looking to see why the rail mobile SS-24's were withdrawn and it would seem that something may have been amiss there. On top of that, the SS-N-20 in the Typhoon class had extensive issues during development with the motors and the follow on developments did as well.

It's possible some of the ICBM and SLBM fleet simply didn't work and were abandoned or destroyed as a result.

-Dave

[raketenjagdpanzer]

A post I made a while ago called "the care and feeding of nuclear weapons" touches on the maintenance issue. One component of modern nuclear weapons, at least American types, is polystyrene. Same stuff your $.99 picnic cooler or chick-fil-et cup is made out of. As it turns out it's a great way to quickly generate plasma to amplify a nuclear explosion, so they fill the hollow space between the actual core and the nosecone with it.

Well, the alpha radiation emitted from the core tends to melt the polystyrene, reducing it to a black crud that can gum things up, and so it needs to be periodically swapped out when it shows decay. If that's the case with US nukes there could be part of the problem right there.

[Olefin]

the US nukes are in the custody of MilGov - they didnt leave them in the silos or on delivery vehicles per several module sources - so it may be that the warheads are still in good shape but they lack the ability to deliver them

whereas with the Soviets they may be sitting in unattended silos or abandoned mobile units and thus neither the delivery vehicle or warhead works

[rcaf_777]

Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer

One of the more spurious canonical notions is that of the limited nuclear exchange that happens in T2k that leaves an "interesting" amount of the world intact

Books like WARDAY talk about a limited strike where just targets inside of the US and USSR where hit.

Movies like by Dawn's Early Light also talk about a limited strike, this also gives you a good start of how a split of MILGOV and CIVGOV could happen

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

Books like WARDAY talk about a limited strike where just targets inside of the US and USSR where hit.

Movies like by Dawn's Early Light also talk about a limited strike, this also gives you a good start of how a split of MILGOV and CIVGOV could happen

The Warday strikes were much more intense than then ones in the game - there were less warheads but they were a lot bigger

they used five to six 9 Megaton nukes on DC,about the same on San Antonio and at least three plus misses in the sea on NY