4 ms·
Nuclear warheads are not designed to be detonated at ground level. The optimum burst height for maximum damage (presumably not to bunkers, but to other structur
by wcoenen 7y ago
Nuclear warheads are not designed to be detonated at ground level. The optimum burst height for maximum damage (presumably not to bunkers, but to other structures) goes up with the bomb yield. For megaton yields that altitude will be several km.
- arethuza 7y agoFor soft targets (e.g. cities) an air burst would be used - but for hard targets a ground burst (or even penetration) would be used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_burst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_burst Some weapons even allowed for "laydown delivery" where weapons would be on the ground for a bit before detonating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laydown_delivery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laydown_delivery From what I recall, the really large weapons (10MT-25MT) were mainly intended, at least in the latter stages of the Cold War, to be used against hard targets.