Plausibility of a Surprise Atomic Attack?

It wouldn't have been long, as SAC would go to CHROME DOME (airborne alert) and having one third of the force on 15-Minute ground alert by 1 Oct 57, and weapons storage would be built at every SAC base.

A look at former SAC bases on Google Earth finds that some old bases still have the Weapons Storage Areas: Mather, Clinton-Sherman, Loring, KI Sawyer, Wurtsmuth, etc., all have the WSAs still there. Some do not: Castle's was plowed up and became a Federal Prison, while March's has probably been plowed up and is now housing developments. Same goes for Larson (Grant County) in Washington state.
 
The real problem, as I see it, is that by the time the Russians have enough bombs - not even bombers, just plain old bombs - the US has enough aircraft on ground alert, and enough ears listening in on Soviet communications, that it's very unlikely there will be any US bombers on the ground by the time the Tu-4s arrive.

By 1954, there were far more ADC and ANG interceptors than the Soviets had bombers that could reach CONUS, plus Nike missile batteries around US Metro areas
 
By 1954, there were far more ADC and ANG interceptors than the Soviets had bombers that could reach CONUS, plus Nike missile batteries around US Metro areas

If any of those matter, then the surprise attack has already failed, because SAC will have already launched its ground alert aircraft.
 
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Bottom line is that by the time the USSR had enough weapons and bombers to actually attack the USA, a surprise attack was not going to happen. Between real time intel about bomber dispositions and radar coverage sneaking bombers in any numbers was a no-go. Maybe one or two, but a real attack no way. You could have an attack spoofing a civilian airliner (but only one) that might make it to D.C. or NYC but other than that...
 
In the early days before the Mark-28 or Mark-43, there would've been two. One B-52 that crashed in 1961 in North Carolina had two B-41 bombs aboard: each was 25 MT: the largest U.S. weapon yield deployed. CHROME DOME aircraft would have varying weapon loads depending on their targets. A B-52 on airborne alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis might carry four bombs and a pair of ADM-20 Quail decoy missiles internally, and (if a G or H model) two AGM-28 Hound Dog missiles with the W-28 Class D warhead with yields from 70 KT up to 1.45 MT, to kill heavily defended targets or to take out SAM sites or interceptor stations. (the yields were 70 KT, 350 KT, 1.1 MT, and 1.45 MT, the same as the B-28 gravity bomb)

FYI the Mark-14 and Mark-17 bombs were so heavy that only the B-36 could carry them. The Mark-17 came in at 42,000 pounds and had a yield of up to 15 MT.
 

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In the early days before the Mark-28 or Mark-43, there would've been two. One B-52 that crashed in 1961 in North Carolina had two B-41 bombs aboard: each was 25 MT: the largest U.S. weapon yield deployed. CHROME DOME aircraft would have varying weapon loads depending on their targets. A B-52 on airborne alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis might carry four bombs and a pair of ADM-20 Quail decoy missiles internally, and (if a G or H model) two AGM-28 Hound Dog missiles with the W-28 Class D warhead with yields from 70 KT up to 1.45 MT, to kill heavily defended targets or to take out SAM sites or interceptor stations. (the yields were 70 KT, 350 KT, 1.1 MT, and 1.45 MT, the same as the B-28 gravity bomb)

FYI the Mark-14 and Mark-17 bombs were so heavy that only the B-36 could carry them. The Mark-17 came in at 42,000 pounds and had a yield of up to 15 MT.

How similar was the Mk. 17 to the T-12 Cloudmaker? Is the Mk. 17 something that was only possible because the B-36 was designed to carry the Cloudmaker?

FYI, a complete list of U.S. nuclear weapons is here:

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Allbombs.html

Is there anything like that for nuclear weapons deployed by countries other than the United States? The only other one I've seen is for the United Kingdom, and possibly France.
 
Given that only one aircraft (the B-36) could carry the T-12, the choice of the aircraft for the Mark-14 and Mark-17 gravity bombs was obvious.

The site does go into some detail about the arsenals of the other nuclear powers, and though it has a detailed article on Russia's weapons development, no details on the current Russian arsenal. If you can get it, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has what they call "Nuclear Notebook" which has updates on the nuclear arsenals of the nuclear-weapon states (declared and otherwise).
 
Given that only one aircraft (the B-36) could carry the T-12, the choice of the aircraft for the Mark-14 and Mark-17 gravity bombs was obvious.
Early model B-52s were theoretically capable of carrying the Mark 14/17 weapons, but the need never arose to try it in practice.
 
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