What If Tsar Bomba Were Tested at Full Yield?

[SmithAlien]

In 1961, the Soviets tested the world's biggest H-Bomb, "Tsar Bomba" (King of Bombs), at 50 (or was it 57) megatons (MT). Its blast sent shockwaves around the world 3 times.

The bomb was originally designed and built for 100MT, but a lead tamper was substituted for the last stage uranium, reducing the yield to 57MT.

Would the bomb have worked at the design yield of 100MT? To what effects?

Would the bomber crew have survived the blast?

Discuss!

Recently I discovered NUKEMAP3D, a 3-D version of NukeMap.

In NUKEMAP3D, you can enter whatever city you want (or choose from a menu), and choose a yield up to 100MT.

For example, I targeted my own hometown, Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a 100MT yield airburst.

Here are the frightening results of a 100MT Fort Wayne attack:

http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap3d/?&clat=40.88521895397503&clng=-85.46983342500327&calt=87475.64833418079&chdg=-3.0364840360086855&ctlt=0.0529777865389611&crll=-0.033366152373661334&mlat=41.07777764257752&mlng=-85.13879256898737&mtyp=2&malt=234.1809539794922&kt=100000

 

[Saphroneth]

Probably would have worked - more fallout, bigger blast radius, more damage. All mainly on Soviet soil. And the bomber wouldn't have been remotely sure to escape, no.

The Tsar Bomba was basically a demonstration piece, though - it's impractically big. Most nuclear weapons in use are actually 10-100 kiloton pieces, because even a megaton can often be overkill.

 

[The Red]

Probably would have worked - more fallout, bigger blast radius, more damage. All mainly on Soviet soil. And the bomber wouldn't have been remotely sure to escape, no.

The Tsar Bomba was basically a demonstration piece, though - it's impractically big. Most nuclear weapons in use are actually 10-100 kiloton pieces, because even a megaton can often be overkill.

If memory serves the Tsar Bomba was meant to make up for Soviet fears of their missiles falling short. The overkill was meant to ensure that even a bad miss would ensure destruction of the target.

 

[Archdevil]

If memory serves the Tsar Bomba was meant to make up for Soviet fears of their missiles falling short. The overkill was meant to ensure that even a bad miss would ensure destruction of the target.

I don't think so. It was way to heavy to be mounted onto a missile. It was purely a demonstration weapon, showing the capabities of the Soviet Union at the hight of the Cold War.

The aircraft carrying the bomb had to be specially modifed to even carry it. And the reason it was tested at reduced yield was that at full yield the aircraft dropping it would not have enough time to clear the blast radius and would have been destroyed.

 

[ObssesedNuker]

The Soviets did apparently think (a few years later) about simultaneously trying to go for a smaller 100 megaton warhead design and bigger ICBM in the hopes that they would meet somewhere in the middle, but the idea never left the concept stage before it was dropped because of improving Soviet missile accuracy in the late-1960s.

 

[CalBear]

If memory serves the Tsar Bomba was meant to make up for Soviet fears of their missiles falling short. The overkill was meant to ensure that even a bad miss would ensure destruction of the target.

Actually it was more like dick waving. The Soviets did that with a lot of projects in the "see, we are better because ours is bigger" mindset. The weapons was far too large to use on any reasonable ICBM (27,000kg/60,000lb, roughly the weight of the Apollo service/command modules), so it would have been a bomber only option. The heaviest throw weight ICBM ever is the R-36 (NATO: SS-18) that can loft 17,500 pounds. The Soviets considered an even larger system, but even it would have been below 20,000 pounds throw weight

To the OP: It almost certainly wipes out the launching aircraft, demonstrates that a weapon that size is worthless for any sort of actual mission, even in an all-out nuclear war scenario, and it becomes the same sort of oddity that the actual test has become.

 

[SactoMan101]

If the bomb had been tested at full yield, the flight crew of that Tu-95 bomber wouldn't have lived to tell about dropping the bomb.

If I remember correctly, the yield of the nuclear warhead of the single-warhead version of the SS-18 Satan (R-36M) missile was 25 MT. Such a powerful warhead was intended to destroy underground bunkers or destroy whole cities.

 

[Ming777]

They would need something like a Saturn IB to launch the damg thing....yeah, not a practical weapon.

 

[ObssesedNuker]

If I remember correctly, the yield of the nuclear warhead of the single-warhead version of the SS-18 Satan (R-36M) missile was 25 MT. Such a powerful warhead was intended to destroy underground bunkers or destroy whole cities.

Actually the 25 megaton warhead was pretty much solely dedicated to destroying very hard targets (like Cheyenne Mountain). For efficient city-busting, you are better off using multiple smaller warheads.

 

[Delta Force]

They would need something like a Saturn IB to launch the damg thing....yeah, not a practical weapon.

Or the UR-500 ICBM, a rocket that would have weighed around 500 metric tons and have been capable of carrying a 100 megaton warhead 13,000 kilometers. The Soviets even had plans for underground silos for it, which caused Khrushchev to quip that they could either build communism or UR-500 silos. The program was eventually revived, gaining a third stage to become the successful Proton space launch vehicle, mainstay of the Soviet/Russian space program.