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"The warhead had a yield of nine megatons—about three times the explosive force of all the bombs dropped during the Second World War, including both atomic bomb

"The warhead had a yield of nine megatons—about three times the explosive force of all the bombs dropped during the Second World War, including both atomic bombs" My god. That alone is enough to scare me. Why on earth would you create a single weapon so powerful when you aren't limited to only one? I guess I don't fully grasp the concept of an arms race because no matter how I think about it that just seems grossly irresponsible.

chiph 13y ago
The Soviets had (and the Russians still maintain) the one anti-ballistic missile system allowed by treaty. It's emplaced all around Moscow. In addition, Soviet leadership had constructed a series of deep bunkers and transport systems under Moscow -- there is/was another subway system underneath the civilian Moscow system for Kremlin leadership to use. So should a missile (of several targeted against Moscow) make it through the ABM system, it would still have to destroy a very hard target. And so you need a big bomb to ensure destruction.
- grannyg00se 13y ago
  Interesting. That sounds like urban myth material - a special subway under the subway. But from my limited knowledge, bigger and bigger nukes wouldn't make a difference against deep hardened bunkers since they don't penetrate before detonation. When you look at pictures of atomic bomb damage you don't see deep craters, you see a wide area of surface level damage.
  - enraged_camel 13y ago
    >>Interesting. That sounds like urban myth material - a special subway under the subway. You need to watch Ghostbusters II. :)
  - cynwoody 13y ago
    There was a special subway line, Metro 2†, which ran from the Kremlin to Khodynka Airfield, Moscow's downtown airport, next to GRU HQ. In the event of an imminent threat, the Soviet leadership would have hopped onto Metro 2, been transported to Khodynka, and been flown from there to a secure command post somewhere in the Urals. †http://books.google.com/books?id=rsB-5-e0RwgC&pg=PA65&dq=subway+kremlin+khodynka&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tHg2UpqrAba14AP3qoDoBQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=subway%20kremlin%20khodynka&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=rsB-5-e0RwgC&pg=PA65&dq=sub... Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-2
TylerE 13y ago
That comparison is a bit misleading... the force of a nuke is essentially omnidirectional, so a lot of that energy doesn't end up creating much except heat, much of that going into the atmostphere. A conventional bomb is going to deliver all of it's force in a highly localized area.

chiph 13y ago

The Soviets had (and the Russians still maintain) the one anti-ballistic missile system allowed by treaty. It's emplaced all around Moscow. In addition, Soviet leadership had constructed a series of deep bunkers and transport systems under Moscow -- there is/was another subway system underneath the civilian Moscow system for Kremlin leadership to use. So should a missile (of several targeted against Moscow) make it through the ABM system, it would still have to destroy a very hard target. And so you need a big bomb to ensure destruction.

grannyg00se 13y ago
Interesting. That sounds like urban myth material - a special subway under the subway. But from my limited knowledge, bigger and bigger nukes wouldn't make a difference against deep hardened bunkers since they don't penetrate before detonation. When you look at pictures of atomic bomb damage you don't see deep craters, you see a wide area of surface level damage.
- enraged_camel 13y ago
  >>Interesting. That sounds like urban myth material - a special subway under the subway. You need to watch Ghostbusters II. :)
- cynwoody 13y ago
  There was a special subway line, Metro 2†, which ran from the Kremlin to Khodynka Airfield, Moscow's downtown airport, next to GRU HQ. In the event of an imminent threat, the Soviet leadership would have hopped onto Metro 2, been transported to Khodynka, and been flown from there to a secure command post somewhere in the Urals. †http://books.google.com/books?id=rsB-5-e0RwgC&pg=PA65&dq=subway+kremlin+khodynka&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tHg2UpqrAba14AP3qoDoBQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=subway%20kremlin%20khodynka&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=rsB-5-e0RwgC&pg=PA65&dq=sub... Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-2

TylerE 13y ago

That comparison is a bit misleading... the force of a nuke is essentially omnidirectional, so a lot of that energy doesn't end up creating much except heat, much of that going into the atmostphere. A conventional bomb is going to deliver all of it's force in a highly localized area.