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We never had many megaton weapons. Two megaton was about the limit, and most weapons were under 500 kilotons. Accuracy is better. Huge bombs was a dick-waving
by CapitalistCartr 10y ago
We never had many megaton weapons. Two megaton was about the limit, and most weapons were under 500 kilotons. Accuracy is better. Huge bombs was a dick-waving contest, and after Tsar Bomba, we gave up that game and went for sophistication.
- mikeash 10y agoThe W38 used on Atlas and Titan 1 was 3.75 megatons. If we consider bomber weapons, the B41 was a 25 megaton weapon with about 500 built. The B53/W53 was a 9 megaton bomb for both bombers and missiles, with around 100 built. There are more beyond 2 megatons; these are examples, not a comprehensive list. Huge bombs weren't a dick-waving contest, they were partly to maximize the value of an ICBM carrying one warhead, and partly to mitigate inaccuracy. As MIRV became practical and accuracy increased, yields decreased on both sides of the Cold War, because smaller bombs are just plain more efficient if you can put them where they need to go.
- arethuza 10y agoThe Soviets and then the Russians deployed variants of the SS-18 with very large warheads (20-25Mt) until fairly recently - either for EMP purposes or to attack Cheyenne Mountain, Raven Rock Mountain etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-36_(missile) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-36_(missile)
- hga 10y agoThey're useful for very hard targets, like dropping two 20Mt or so at the same time at each end of the access tunnel for the Cheyenne Mountain Complex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Mountain_Complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Mountain_Complex). Otherwise, at something in the 1 Mt plus or minus level, I forget, a lot of the energy is wasted by being thermally re-radiated out into space.