/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.1793828]

What would be the typical yield of today's American Nuclear Weapon?

[Anonymous No.1793856]

In the kilotons.

Hydrogen bombs are infinitely scalable. There's no theoretical limit to their yield, provided we have enough enriched fissible ore. the largest yield hydrogen bomb was the Tsar Bomba, 50 megatons, scaled down from the original 100 megatons so the pilots who dropped it would have time to escape.

We realized, post cold war, that large yield bombs are costly and not very tactically useful. The ability to destroy subsurface structures including missile silos is really what we keep nukes for, as vaporizing entire cities is no longer politically palatable.

The ability to do precise, intense damage is more strategically valuable than imprecise large scale destruction.

[Anonymous No.1793872]

>>1793856


no. the Tsar bomba SHOULD HAVE yielded a shit ton more than ~50-60 megatons.


thermonuclear warheads operate in stages with maximum yields.

the Tsar bomba was basically 3 layered hydrogen bombs (like an onion of hydrogen bombs).
modern, individual, thermonuclear warheads from a large multi stage warhead can vary, but anything larger than about 600 kilotons is an absolute waste of time.


there is a leveling effect. a 10 kiloton bomb will pretty much destroy everything within a few miles.


but that does not mean that a 50 megaton bomb will pretty much destroy everything within 5000 miles.


there is a point at which making a bomb bigger adds nothing to the destructive potential of the device

(like I said, if the destruction was "linear" then the tsar bomba would have destroyed the entire Eurasian continent)

[Anonymous No.1794019]

I wish we could test a few more just for more cool photos and vids.

[Anonymous No.1794132]

>>1794019


there are literally hundreds of hours of video from nuclear tests.

they are all classified. it is because the videos can be used to effectively help the engineering process for the development of a nuclear weapon.


remember, some (or most) of the most closely held secrets have nothing to do with politics, economics, aliens, etc....

they are things like:

the composition of the semiconductors used in the electronics of a thermonuclear warhead....

the specific shape, composition, and production process used to manufacture the explosive lens in the "physics package" of a thermonuclear warhead (eg the fission component)

extremely accurate topographical information of the earth's surface, used to effectively calculate the gravitational acceleration "g" at different orbits above the earth for accurate guidance of ICBM and satellites (this was, for many decades, one of the most closely held secrets in the US)

[patachu !LULZISTwQI No.1794140]

most powerful warheads on the us arsenal

W88 mirv warhead, ~500 Kiloton.
LGM30 minuteman, the actual generation of ICBM in the US arsenal is being progressively upgraded with those warheads, so a total of 1.5 Megaton yield per missile.

otherwise you got the B83 nuclear bomb, 1.2 Megaton max. atmospheric delivery by stealth bomber, just hire one or two kamikazes

both are thermonuclear.

our most powerful nuke in france remains the TNO warhead, 300 kiloton, usually mounted on ASMP+ cruise missiles.