Nebogipfel
Monthly Donor
Did the Soviets know about the locations the key nuclear production facilities and where the US nukes were stored ? These would be also potential targets.
Did the Soviets know about the locations the key nuclear production facilities and where the US nukes were stored ? These would be also potential targets.
I
Most posts agree SAC strikes would require reconnaissance first taking weeks if not a full month. In that time would the Air Force/SAC be doing what we now term counter-air and air dominance operations to pave the way for eventual nuclear strikes? This means knocking down any fighters that appear, wiping out airfields, pipelines, rail lines, and generally doing damage to air defenses.
The Soviets' first weapon was an exact clone of the Fat Man design (no thanks to Klaus Fuchs and the others involved in the Rosenberg Spy Ring). And it certainly could be air-dropped by the Tu-4.
It would take a few weeks: remember that other than some Luftwaffe target folders, and those who'd been to Russia in the '30s who'd help build some factories for the Russians, reliable intelligence on Soviet industrial centers was lacking. Especially for those facilities built in 1942-43 east of the Urals. RB-36 missions would have to be flown to gather the photos needed for mission planning, and then the actual strikes flown. It's not just bombing a city, it's actually knowing the locations of industrial complexes that's important in this time frame: LeMay knew that the Nagasaki bomb had missed its intended target by three miles, and some of the targeted industry had survived. His planners needed reliable imagery for their strike planning, and in the early days of a war, needed recon missions flown over the USSR before the bombing campaign could begin in earnest.
LeMay was told in 1950 that if war began with the USSR, he'd have to do a lot of recon first, before he could mount a serious strategic campaign, with either nukes or iron bombs. So many of the target locations were unknown at the time. Some weren't revealed until the overflights-whether U-2, RB-36, RB-47, RAF, etc. And some weren't known until the first recon sats were flown in the early '60s.