2 ms·
According to Daniel Ellsberg the only thing considered by US planners was blast yield - fallout and direct radiation (particularly thermal effects) were ignored
by arethuza 5y ago
According to Daniel Ellsberg the only thing considered by US planners was blast yield - fallout and direct radiation (particularly thermal effects) were ignored as their effects were regarded as too unpredictable.
This was in the 1960s though - things may have changed.
edit: Fall out, even with modern weapons, would be a huge consideration if you are downwind of a target likely to be hit by a surface burst. You can experiment on Nukemap with the different options:
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
- CapitalistCartr 5y agoIt hadn't in the Eighties. If you want to be a nuclear war planner, I suggest Nukemap. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ No more plastic wheels to spin like a sliderule. Want to take out a target? What's your weapon system's CEP (Circle of Equal Probability)? How is the target built, that is, how much overpressure to destroy it, and how deeply buried is it? Now choose a weapon. If it'a high-priority target, aim more than one weapon at it.