WI the Soviets after testing the first Tsar bomba in 1961, started mass-production of these? How would this affect the nuclear arms race and the Cold War? Would the US start mass producing their own versions too?
They did but 50mt is only about 35% more effective than 20mt, doubling weight for 35% more effectiveness is inefficientSo mass production is out of the question then, and the US having their own versions too, I still think the Soviets could have maintained a few for strategic targets like New York or D.C
Why? A normal bomb with an airburst would give the same impact.
They did but 50mt is only about 35% more effective than 20mt, doubling weight for 35% more effectiveness is inefficient
So 20mt worked fine for any job that needs 50mt and they had 20mt devices ready
Yes but they made many 20mt devices that did the same job, which was my entire point and what I meant by that statementUsing wikipedia here, and it says they only made one Tsar Bomb.
Using wikipedia here, and it says they only made one Tsar Bomb.
Yes but they made many 20mt devices that did the same job, which was my entire point
As a show of force, like the US Moon Landing.
If you want a justification for the Tsar Bomba, the US seriously considered building "ultra-hardened" facilities that would be difficult to knock out even with 20 MT nukes. The most seriously considered option was an ultra-hard presidential shelter called the DUCC, that would have been built 3,500 feet under the Potomac, and was designed to resist multiple direct hits by earth-penetrating 100 MT weapons, or surface bursts by 300 MT weapons. I did a TMMAM on this - it's impossible to say for certain, but my back-of-the-envelope guess is that it might well have worked. The big problem was that it was a ferociously expensive way to save a very small number of people, and it was decided that NEACP was more cost-effective.
If it gets built - or a Soviet equivalent - we might see these titanic weapons being built to take them out.
Very interesting! That would certainly provide justification for continued 50 or more mt bombs, even if they were expensive.
But this Deep Underground Command Center also seems to be an ideal thing for the case of asteroid doomsday. Except if not hit directly, it should survive almost anything?
I guess the thing they counted that the larger the warhead, less precise it is. How big is CEP for SS-18?