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It was a pretty damn big explosion nonetheless. The US strategic warheads max out at around 1.3 megatons these days. It's hard to imagine a blast 9 times strong
by ipnon 5y ago
It was a pretty damn big explosion nonetheless. The US strategic warheads max out at around 1.3 megatons these days. It's hard to imagine a blast 9 times stronger than what even the US military deems excessive in an Armageddon scenario.
- spaetzleesser 5y agoThey used to be bigger though. I think around 20 megatons.
- dumbfoundded 5y agoTsar Bomba, probably the largest nuke ever used was ~50MT (1). (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba
- Victerius 5y agoAnd the Davy Crockett, the smallest nuke ever, could go as low as 10 tons :3
- tehjoker 5y agoYea, the US arsenal downsized the weapons in keeping with the tonnage restrictions in the various arms reduction agreements. However, they compensated by increasing the accuracy of the weapons so that fewer bombs per target will be needed, increasing the hard kill power of the arsenal without violating the agreements. This is important because "in theory" no one is allowed to explicitly target civilians, which don't require much accuracy, per the laws of war. Military targets are often in reinforced concrete or buried and so require a precise high pressure hit to crack. In practice, aiming points are chosen of military targets that are quite close to civilians.
- masklinn 5y agoAlso because a single large blast wastes a lot of energy, and is easier to intercept. You’ll do way more damage way more reliably with 20 1MT warheads than with a single 20MT bomb. But it required reliable ballistic missiles and M(I)RV. If your delivery mechanism is bombers, then at equiv-tech you have to account for high attrition rates, and thus need large payloads to ensure even low success rates will do the necessary damage to the target.
- helsinkiandrew 5y agoInteresting that the largest nuclear test on Bikini Atoll (just 4000km away from Tonga) was 15 megatons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_yield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_yield
- arethuza 5y agoIt wasn't supposed to be 15 megatons, the expected yield was 6 megatons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo The larger than expected yield caused a lot of problems.
- jdougan 5y agoI'd argue that the very very wrong models for fallout generation and dispersal were an even bigger issue. If they hadn't gotten that wrong, no one would have cared other than the scientists in the near bunkers who had to change their trousers.
- sudosysgen 5y agoIt's not because they're excessive, it's because the deaths/gram are better for smaller warheads, so you can get more Armageddon per missile with smaller warheads
- implements 5y agoYes, four 1MT explosions in a spaced square do more damage than a single 4MT in the centre of that square, plus if one of them is a dud or completely misses the target then the target is still effectively destroyed by the others. (Not the case if the single large weapon fails). Also, small weapons means more warheads per missile, some of which can be decoys - which increases the chances of defeating any anti-ballistic missile system.
- amelius 5y agoSounds like a cluster bomb, weren't these declared illegal? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Munitions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Muniti...
- chmod775 5y agoThe US is one of the few western countries that are not a signatory to that treaty and a few other weapons/human rights related treaties. For... obvious reasons. Signing a treaty when you would just be ignoring it is typically not a diplomatically smart move. Better to not sign the treaty if at all possible.
- tokai 5y agoOnly if you ignore what a cluster bomb actually is.
- Sharlin 5y agoCalling MIRVs cluster bombs is, uh, probably stretching the definition of “cluster bomb” a bit. The problem with the latter is unexploded (but still dangerous) submunitions that are difficult to find and dispose of once the conflict is over, compare antipersonnel mines. But if you’re hit by a MIRV nuclear strike… well, the issue of post bellum disposal of potential duds is very very far down the list of your problems!
- boc 5y agoKeep in mind that the size is dictated by MIRVs[1] - one ICBM goes up into space, breaks into lots of independent missiles, and they all rain down on different targets. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targetable_reentry_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targeta...
- tim333 5y agoYou can see the 50 megaton Tsar bomb on youtube of course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtCTzbh4mNQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtCTzbh4mNQ