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> "Who cares if that tank's engine is stolen. After all, we have nukes!" But what are the odds those nukes even work? From what I understand, they're complex d
by mcv 5y ago
> "Who cares if that tank's engine is stolen. After all, we have nukes!"
But what are the odds those nukes even work? From what I understand, they're complex devices that require expert maintenance. What are the odds they've been properly maintained over the disastrous past 3 decades?
It's not something I'd ever want to bet on, because even if only 10% of their nukes work, that's still plenty to do tons of damage with, but considering the sorry state of their military, I'd be quite surprised if all of their nukes still worked perfectly.
- dgudkov 5y agoThat's a good question. It would be irresponsible to bet on the nukes not working. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if one day it becomes known that Russia's nukes are non-functional due to negligence and corruption.
- hedora 5y agoHistorically, Russian nukes tended to fail by disabling fail safes and self-arming. It took joint efforts with the US in the 90s to find(!) and disable the faulty ones. I'm surprised none have gone off, frankly.
- oneoff786 5y agoImagine learning years later that Russia has, by this time, already launched several nuclear weapons at kyiv.
- TMWNN 5y ago>But what are the odds those nukes even work? I've been thinking about this possibility for a while: * Putin fires tactical atomic weapon at some empty plot of Ukrainian land, and announces it as a "demonstration" of Russian might. * The weapon is a dud. I'm not sure whether this outcome might not be worse in the long run, in terms of geopolitical stability, than if the weapon performs as expected!
- rebuilder 5y agoWhy announce in advance? Drop the bomb, if it’s a dud, don’t mention it at all.