(Peter Stickney) wrote in
:

In article ,
(Dav1936531) writes:
From: (BUFDRVR)


There were reports some years ago (never confirmed AFAIK) of Soviet
suitcase
nukes having disappeared from their inventory.

What "inventory"? I've seen several reports where both ex-Soviet
nuclear
scientists and ex-Soviet military officials repeatedly claim there
were never any suitcase nukes in the first place. This turn coat
Ledbed (is that his name?) seems to have been rewarded hansomely for
scaring the crap out of western nations.
BUFDRVR

We had/have "suitcase" nuke demolition charges.....it seems only fair
to assume that the Soviets had/have them too.

Hardly "Suitcase Nukes". More like "Steamer Trunk Nukes" or
"Footlocker Nukes". Our smallest nuke, the Small Atomic Demolition
Munition, wasn't really amenable to being carried about like luggage.
If they have lost control of them, denying they ever existed would be
a good way to attempt to save face and to try to avoid any liability
for negligent management of their armaments should the new owners use
one in a terror attack.

Which wouldn't work worth a damn if they were ever used. Over the
last 6 decades, we've become very, very, good at puling radioactive
particles out of the air, and figuring out their provenance. We can
identify the parts of teh bombs that that dust was, originally. We
can identify the origin of the pit by assaying the various levels of
impurities and such that were part of teh original metal. I wouldn't
be a damned bit surprised if we could tell what production batch the
bomb pit was from.

Let's hope Al-Qaeda is blowing smoke.

Even the Russians don't do bombast quite like the Arabs.


If a nuclear bomb can be made to fit into a 155mm projectile,surely one
could fit into a suitcase? And since 155's are loaded into some artillery
by 'hand',they would not weigh more than what a person could lift.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net