Blast from the Past: Let's put the FUN into nuclear annihilation again!

Hypatia's Protege

Joined Mar 1, 2015
3,228
'Duck And Cover' was a bit before my time -- howbeit I painfully recall the 'doom-speak' of the 80's - based upon 'verbal cues' alone, the narrator might well have been offering instruction on home maintenance -- which, arguably, he was?!:eek::D

 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,158
Today's worry is not the multi-megaton blast from an ICBM airbiurst overhead, but the radiological damage from a small dirty bomb in a major city or sporting event. Despite all our technology only distance from the event will protect you. Curiously, all the guns in the world, won't protect you from this event either because you will be too far away from the event to use them.
 

Kermit2

Joined Feb 5, 2010
4,162
The EMP from a single large nuke, detonated 20 to 50 miles up would destroy the microprocessor controlled devices that modern society needs to live and eat.
TV, Radio, cars, banks, airlines etc. Would all be useless junk.
Very few things would work. Utilities rely on computer controls for every step of the power generation process. So no electricity.
Solar panels? Any charge control device would be electrically dead.
Dirty bombs are not nearly as deadly.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,158
Nuclear weapons are never detonated at high altitudes. The optimum detonation altitude is about 5,000 feet. You don't want the high altitude jet stream to bring the radiation back to the launch site. That would be tantamount to committing suicide, unless you are committed to living the rest of your life underground.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,158
For EMP damage to be maximized you DO detonate at high altitude.
Just because you can does not mean you will. This would be a MAD strategy since the negative after effects would reach the launch site much sooner. To say nothing of the launch on detection protocol that would eliminate the source as well. Detecting the source of a dirty bomb is a great deal harder than detecting an ICBM. Even the source of a long range bomber is more uncertain than an ICBM and you need an ICBM to detonate at altitudes over 100,000 ft (20 mi). Slickem's (SLCM) or submarine launched cruise missiles are even harder to deal with and they certainly won't detonate at high altitudes.

If it comes, the nuclear detonations are going to be at low altitude, because nobody really cares about using only the EMP.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
.

The article points out that they have both strategic and tactical applications as force multipliers.
The use of them in a strategic strike won't stop ours or any major nuclear power from responding with a massive retaliatory strike as most systems are protected from NUC EMP and have 'dead hand' systems to respond if command and control are destroyed at the top levels.
 

justtrying

Joined Mar 9, 2011
439
The use of them in a strategic strike won't stop ours or any major nuclear power from responding with a massive retaliatory strike as most systems are protected from NUC EMP and have 'dead hand' systems to respond if command and control are destroyed at the top levels.
that sounds wonderful. At one point taking land from others made sense - need for resources. This is just complete self-destruction. There is no longer a way of killing the perceived enemy (who is it anyway?) without killing yourself in the process. But I guess money doesn't care (neither does Ayn Rand :eek:)
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
M.A.D. was actually the acronym for Mutually Assured Destruction. Only a madman like Gen. Curtis LeMay even contemplated a first strike.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay
I wish it were only LeMay. In the distant past I had SIOP access due to my job (not on a sub) as a EAM decoder and authenticator. Once we (always with at least two people) had the Sealed Authenticator System codes our job was to find the selected target plan in the book with the CO and XO in concurrence ("Authentic" (i.e. the codes match)) for further transmission to nuclear delivery platforms. All the targets are listed in clear text so there is no mistake where the bombs are headed. Just to hold that doomsday thing in your hands during a drill was a chilling experience.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,101361-1,00.html
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,101361-3,00.html
 
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Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,158
I wish it were only LeMay. In the distant past I had SIOP access due to my job (not on a sub) as a EAM decoder and authenticator. Once we (always with at least two people) had the Sealed Authenticator System codes our job was to find the selected target plan in the book with the CO and XO in concurrence ("Authentic" (i.e. the codes match)) for further transmission to nuclear delivery platforms. All the targets are listed in clear text so there is no mistake where the bombs are headed. Just to hold that doomsday thing in your hands during a drill was a chilling experience.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,101361-1,00.html
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,101361-3,00.html
All I can say is thank you for your service.
 
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