3 ms·

Is this meant to sell F-35's or just to move the hands on the doomsday clock closer to midnight? Or cynically, both?

s4mw1se 3y ago
According to the article it’s technically not moving the dooms day clock closer to midnight because these warheads already existed. They just got new housing silly! it’s just twice as fast and harder to intercept.
godelski 3y ago
It's a lateral move. Recall that the US is updating their nuclear stockpile[0]. This is not expanding the stockpile, but neither is it reducing it. The F-35 was created to be a one-size-fits-all solution invented by the same bureaucrats who invented Full Stack Developer or the Bradley[1] with exactly the same results. If you're talking Doomsday clock, well there is a certain country actively stating they are willing to use nuclear weapons in an ongoing conflict that you might want to consider to contextualize (which itself requires further contextualization all the way down the rabbit hole) [0] https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3571660/department-of-defense-announces-pursuit-of-b61-gravity-bomb-variant/ https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/357166... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA
MilStdJunkie 3y ago
Bit of both. Not being able to throw nukes has restricted the F35 sales in NATO, which has . . traditionally . . depended on nukes to slow down the momentum of a Warsaw Pact breakthrough. The idea is that an armored breakthrough is likely to be concentrated, and if you nuke the tip of the spear right at the place the spear is connected to the shaft, you can make an instant no-man's land that will buy you time as the spearhead runs out of gas/water/food/support. The teensy problem is that this kicks off, in simulations anyway, stroke-counterstroke-countercounterstroke nukes over a waaaaaaay-too-small area, and the tactical situation just turns into soup. In newer simulations, the disruptions to C&C - from the residual ionization - is so bad that it's actual literal static, for long periods of time, no one anywhere knows what's going on anywhere else. Which still counts as no-man's-land? Just a bit more long term. "Mission very accomplished, but with qualifications" is a pretty good functional summary of nuclear explosives in general.

According to the article it’s technically not moving the dooms day clock closer to midnight because these warheads already existed. They just got new housing silly! it’s just twice as fast and harder to intercept.

godelski 3y ago

It's a lateral move. Recall that the US is updating their nuclear stockpile[0]. This is not expanding the stockpile, but neither is it reducing it. The F-35 was created to be a one-size-fits-all solution invented by the same bureaucrats who invented Full Stack Developer or the Bradley[1] with exactly the same results. If you're talking Doomsday clock, well there is a certain country actively stating they are willing to use nuclear weapons in an ongoing conflict that you might want to consider to contextualize (which itself requires further contextualization all the way down the rabbit hole) [0] https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3571660/department-of-defense-announces-pursuit-of-b61-gravity-bomb-variant/ https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/357166... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA

MilStdJunkie 3y ago

Bit of both. Not being able to throw nukes has restricted the F35 sales in NATO, which has . . traditionally . . depended on nukes to slow down the momentum of a Warsaw Pact breakthrough. The idea is that an armored breakthrough is likely to be concentrated, and if you nuke the tip of the spear right at the place the spear is connected to the shaft, you can make an instant no-man's land that will buy you time as the spearhead runs out of gas/water/food/support. The teensy problem is that this kicks off, in simulations anyway, stroke-counterstroke-countercounterstroke nukes over a waaaaaaay-too-small area, and the tactical situation just turns into soup. In newer simulations, the disruptions to C&C - from the residual ionization - is so bad that it's actual literal static, for long periods of time, no one anywhere knows what's going on anywhere else. Which still counts as no-man's-land? Just a bit more long term. "Mission very accomplished, but with qualifications" is a pretty good functional summary of nuclear explosives in general.