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I don't have citations to hand because I've been reading too many different nuclear weapon publications, but I seem to recall there was an idea to deliver these
by philipkglass 5y ago
I don't have citations to hand because I've been reading too many different nuclear weapon publications, but I seem to recall there was an idea to deliver these super-size weapons by unmanned submarine. The targeting wouldn't have been very accurate, but it wouldn't need to be.
It's interesting how nuclear weapons in general were solving the problem of accurate targeting by making it unneeded. Today one attack helicopter can plausibly take out 16 1969-vintage T-72 tanks before rearming. In 1969 the expected solution to a giant herd of Soviet tanks coming through the Fulda Gap was tactical nuclear weapons, because NATO forces could not fire their conventional weapons accurately enough to stop such an advance.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoAny book recommendations in that category? Ive been eyeing “109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos” for some time but have not started anything.
- philipkglass 5y agoI read the big Richard Rhodes classics [1] a long time ago. Now I'm mostly reading blogs, declassified primary sources, and publications from open source intelligence. Two somewhat lesser known books I recommend if you are looking for details more than broad history are U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History and The Swords of Armageddon, both by Chuck Hansen. Both are currently out of print. The latter can be found on Library Genesis. I scanned The Secret History about 10 years ago and uploaded it to a technical book sharing forum but sadly nobody seems to have propagated my scan to Library Genesis and I can't be bothered to go through their sign-up process right now. [1] The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb.