Actually the US had the components for seventeen fission bombs at the beginning of 1948; forty three were built and six retired during that year. The available stockpile at the time of the Airlift was approximately thirty five weapons, mostly MK3MOD0 designs.
Ah, yes. I was thinking of the start of 1947. In any case, even 50 bombs are far short of requirements, to say nothing of the planes, crews, infrastructure, or intelligence to do what they wanted to.
If the US had felt the requirement the production rate could have been significantly higher.
No, no it couldn’t have. As the video I posted pointed out, reactor problems obviated significant increases in production until 1949.
A war fought in 1948 would have started with Soviet advances across Europe but these would have been rapidly slowed by the tactical and operational use of nuclear weapons on force concentrations, rail junctions, stockpiles and production centres. Once more long range bombers (B-50 and B-36) were available Societ factory complexes, transport infrastructure and cities would have been attacked until the country fell apart.
You obviously didn’t watch the video I posted. SAC simply didn’t have the bomb assembly teams, atomic-capable bombers, bomber air crews, or forward infrastructure to pull that off. They only had 12 atomic certified air crews in 1948, which gives us a hard maximum limit on the number of bombs SAC cam deliver at once, and when those same crews were asked to try and do a mock bomb run in Dayton, Ohio they failed to even find the target despite zero enemy resistance and short flight paths.
So no, the Red Army isn’t going to be slowed by any tactical or operational strikes, something that wasn’t even planned for in the 1948 warplans. The likely result of an immediate atomic bombing campaign is liable to be the destruction of the limited American atomic bomber force...
Last edited: