(09-08-2023, 08:05 PM)Ninurta Wrote: Because of that property, a distributed barrage of 100 kt bombs does a lot more damage than one big Tsar Bomba. So nuclear forces have gone mostly to smaller warheads, 100 to 300 kt,and loaded them into MIRV warheads for a shotgun effect. So far as is public knowledge, ALL of the 1 to 3 MT warheads, the biggest we had deployed during the Cold War, have been decommissioned and replaced with smaller 100 to 300 kt warheads, each having about 1/10th the "power" of the bigger boys we used to deploy.
I remember some stats. Two ICBM loads of warheads could utterly flatten everything in a 30 mile radius like it was ground zero at Hiroshima. They do this with 'elegant patterning' (I'll probably be under arrest here in a few days -chuckle-). I also remember that most attack patterns were to be straight line. And, the re-entry speeds were astronomically higher than anything you see in unclassified reporting.
Bad thing about ICBMs is that when you fire them, "It's on like Donkey Kong." It's at that moment you find out who 'believes you' amongst the members of the nuclear club.
The real threat comes from the subs. Those can take down all command and control within 3 1/2 minutes anywhere that that is desired. Anywhere being the operative word. I also believed subs would be used to annihilate China if it ever got down to it. And the estimates were annihilation within 30 minutes of launch orders being issued and a zero percent chance of retaliation.
All of that info is at least 30 years old now. Probably most of it is still very accurate.
Probably the bigger threat to Putin (bio-warfare aside) where our Ukrainian BS is involved is getting our advanced anti-missile capability closer to his borders. Those systems can peer deeply beyond the border and they see 'everything'. China about lost its mind because we were always deploying the latest and greatest to Korea to counter the North Korean Kim threats. If the Patriot pissed 'em off ... the THAAD was a swift kick in the balls. I don't even know what the latest and greatest is anymore.