Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Ripsnort on August 08, 2002, 12:39:22 PM
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"The United States will soon begin to dismantle the 35 remaining B-53s, the most powerful thermonuclear bombs it ever built, 40 years after the weapons first became operational and five years after they were withdrawn from active service, according to Energy Department officials.
With a yield of 9 megatons (the equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT), each B-53 has the power of more than 400 Hiroshima atomic bombs. The weapon was originally designed to destroy the Soviet Union's deeply buried bunkers built during the Cold War to protect top Communist Party leaders and Moscow's military command posts.
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MORE... (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57159-2002Aug7.html)
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That bomb is miniscule compared to some of the monsters the Soviets built. The Soviets once detonated a 100 Megaton bomb and it left a crater 7 miles wide.
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Yeah, soviets had 50 megaton device that was tested by airdrop. They had also plans for 100 megaton device but it was never constructed.
9 megaton... Bah!
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Jochen, I did some research, and the 7 mile crater was made by the 50 megaton bomb. The simply put less nuclear material in the 100 megaton bomb which reduced the power to a mere 57 MEGATONS.
I have a feeling the Soviets would have destroyed the entire U.S. in a matter of minutes had war broken out.
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Good thing we had the missle subs of the US Navy that would have returned the favor. Perhaps deterrance was (is) a good policy after all. (-; (raised eyebrow)
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Originally posted by fdiron
I have a feeling the Soviets would have destroyed the entire U.S. in a matter of minutes had war broken out.
Well, it would have been done with smaller bombs, and the destruction would certainly have been mutual.
"it (Tsar Bomb) would have been detected crossing the North American early warning line and then been over US and Canadian territory for 8 hours - ample time for jet fighters to intercept and shoot it down "[/i]
(http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Russia/Tsarbmb.jpg)
Ref: http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Russia/TsarBomba.html
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What if the Soviet bomber had flown low-level over the pacific, flew down to California, and popped up for a few minutes to gain altitude for release? Thats not so improbable.
If I remember correctly, the B1 bomber was designed for low level strikes into the Soviet Union.
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How bout we retire them in Iraq?
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Originally posted by fdiron
What if the Soviet bomber had flown low-level over the pacific, flew down to California, and popped up for a few minutes to gain altitude for release? Thats not so improbable.
If I remember correctly, the B1 bomber was designed for low level strikes into the Soviet Union.
I'm assuming that would have been the longest route, shortest route from Russia to California would be over the artic circle
"Even if the Tu-95 were able to reach Chicago, the closest plausible US target, (which is doubtful given the enormous payload, far in excess of normal for long-range missions, the added drag from the belly bulge required to house the bomb)"
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Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
How bout we retire them in Iraq?
Genocide is the wet dream of the zealots
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Oh you didnt think I meant we detonate them there? Oh no thats not what I meant, that would be terrible. :D
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Here's an interesting fact dug up since 1989:
3 targets for 50 MT warheads in the San Francisco Bay Area (among others):
1. NAS Moffet field, center of runway network.
2. Onazuka AFB (i.e. the 'cube' right next to NAS Moffet field).
3. The junction of Stevens Creek Blvd. and 280.
For those that know the Bay Area...talk about overkill eh? 150 MT within 7 miles of each other. 8)
Mike/wulfie
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Two lines of movies I enjoy...
"There's no defense, like a GOOD offense..."
and
"A weapon unused, is a useless weapon..."
:D
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Wulfie where did you get this information?
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Disregard-forgot that the Tu-95 Bear was turbo-prop.
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Originally posted by fdiron
Disregard-forgot that the Tu-95 Bear was turbo-prop.
From the article:
" Khrushchev specifically cited as the primary motivation a political rather than a technical justification - his view that the international situation was deteriorating".........
"There was no previously existing military requirement for a 100 megaton weapon - such weapons are virtually useless for military purposes. The Soviet Union had only one delivery system capable of carrying a weapon of this size - a handful of the relatively slow prop-driven Tu-95 bomber - and it was incapable of intercontinental range with a payload this large.
I'm sure they would have attempted to delivery it had nuclear war broke out (Air refueling?)
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GRUNHERZ,
It was classified before the big 'we are detargeting all our missiles' group hug between U.S.A. and Russia.
Since then it's been declassified. Not available in any FOIA database yet, but an 'O' I used to work for works on one of the DoDs declassification projects.
I knew about it before it was declassified, as did many others. It was 'close to home knolwedge' for me for awhile I used to live in S.F. Bay Area.
Mike/wulfie
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Warheads for the bay area? Yep we who live here have long known about that. At least we will go out with a flash, over in a second rather than suffer radiation sickness and have our skin peal off. Moffet was the primary Anti Submarine base for the PacRim area, er used to be. Now its just a field for NASA to use. Stevens Creek is one of the Civic cross points around here, lotsa people, BIG mall, etc... Onazu... sshshshsh, someone will come by and kill me better shut up.
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I live exactly at #3. :D
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GRUNHERZ and Senna,
I spent alot of time in that area. When I get back to the U.S.A. I will be in that area for at least a few weeks. We need to go get a beer.
Senna,
Where in S.J. do you live?
GRUNHERZ,
House/Apt./Condo?
Mike/wulfie
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Condo
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who me, studio. Gona plan to move to LA soon. If you are in town, holla away.
:D
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My high school history teacher was a former NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) officer in the U.S. Army. One day he told us about some stuff he did in the army. Heres some stuff he said-
Even if the U.S. was only about to launch 1/12th of its nuclear aresenal, 95% of Russia would be destroyed.
He was also a tank commander (never said what type, I imagine M60s or M48s). He said that during the winter in Germany, they had to slave-start 75% of their tanks, and even then it was hard to get some of the tanks running at all. He said after the cold-war was over, he was able to go over to the Soviet sector of Germany. He said the Soviets had heated bunkers large enough to house a (brigade I think) of tanks. If war ever broke out, the Soviets would have been able to roll through Germany.
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On our base in Belorussia there were no heated bunkers - not as essential for offence but probably quite as urgent if you need to get out to safe distance from under that incoming nuke zeroing in onto your base...
Anyway, winter procedure for starting a T-72 was in exess of 45 minutes. T-72 was eqiupped with a special preheater that would heat the radiator coolant first before attemptig to start the engine.
miko
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Hmmm - I've read that the March 1, 1954 Bikini Atoll test (FFF bomb)was 18 megatons - thats twice as powerful as the B-53 & much better fallout too ¦¬}
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Hmm, all Soviet literature stated that Titan-2 had a 10 megaton warhead.
With a yield of 9 megatons (the equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT), each B-53 has the power of more than 400 Hiroshima atomic bombs. The weapon was originally designed to destroy the Soviet Union's deeply buried bunkers built during the Cold War to protect top Communist Party leaders and Moscow's military command posts.
My Father was involved into the construction of that bunkers. They were supposed to withstand 10x10megaton hits directly in the spot over them in the surface. They even had a special funeral compartment there, that was usefull considering the age of our Party bosses... They were built in the 70s, somewhere in the Urals, about 1km deep in basalt. The biggest problem was not the penetration or even radiation but the vibrations caused by the explosions.
If only we could spend that enormous resources on something more creative then prolonging the lifes of a few dozen old men for a couple of months...
There was no previously existing military requirement for a 100 megaton weapon - such weapons are virtually useless for military purposes. The Soviet Union had only one delivery system capable of carrying a weapon of this size - a handful of the relatively slow prop-driven Tu-95 bomber - and it was incapable of intercontinental range with a payload this large.
The Kuzka's Mother was initially a warhead to the R-7 missile, the one that launched Sputnik and is still used as the main launch vehicle in Russian space programm.
"it (Tsar Bomb) would have been detected crossing the North American early warning line and then been over US and Canadian territory for 8 hours - ample time for jet fighters to intercept and shoot it down "
LOL!!! We have a Tsar-Cannon that doesn't shoot and a Tsar-Bell that doesn't ring ;)