"Carey Sublette" wrote in message
ink.net...

"WaltBJ" wrote in message
om...
Comments:
1) It is true that there is no theoretical limit to the size of a TNW.
The practical limit is when the bomb vents to space rather than
expanding across the surface of the earth. Big bombs are impractical
since they blow the hell out of the hypocenter (spot directly under
the bomb) but the radius of destruction increases as the cube root of
the bomb's yield. One could take the same amount of critical material
and make numerous smaller bombs and achieve a much greater area of
destruction by carefully distributing them over the target zone.

The fundamental reason why 'Ivan', the Tsar Bomba, had no relevance to the
strategic balance was that it was undeliverable against the U.S. The
weight
of this bomb - 27 tonnes - was nearly equal to the Tu-95's maximum
payload,
and two and a half times its normal weapon load. Range of the Tu-95 was
already marginal for attacking the U.S. even with a normal bomb load. Even
worse, since the bomb's dimensions - 2 meters wide and 8 meters long -
were
larger than the bomb bay could accommodate part of the fuselage had to be
cut away, and the bomb bay doors removed. The bomb was partially recessed
in
the plane, but not enclosed, with over half of it protruding in flight. A
deployed version of a Tsar Bomba carrier would of course had a bulging
bomb
bay enclosure added, but this would have further reduced range from the
drag.

2) I should think doctrine on the possible use of nuclear weapons took
a serious hit when a real sober look was taken of the two nuclear
accidents the USSR experienced - Chelyabinsk and Chernobyl. The USSR
never ever achieved the capability to feed all its people from its own
resources and what fallout from numerous nuclear weapons would do to
the arable lands of the Ukraine really doesn't bear thinking about.

The U.S. similarly vulnerable to this effect from the eastward fallout
plumes of strikes on the Montana and Wyoming missile fields.

What the heck! Back in the '50s you could buy tickets and go
sit in abandoned uranium mines in Montana and elsewhere.
It was supposed to help cure 'What ails you.'
You could also put your feet in a special box in the shoe store
and watch your toes wiggle. ...let you know how the new shoes fit.
Wish I had one now to check out a broken little toe in my rt. foot.
No pain and no handicap but not worth the doctors big fee.

In Stalin's day of course he would have grown radioactive wheat and fed it
to the population. It would have saved them from starvation and immediate
death, but given them a lifespan much reduced from normal.

In ten years or so, we may say the same about the Atkins diet.

3) FWIW I spent those Cold War years in Air Defense Command as an 86D,
102 and 104 pilot on active air defense alert, usually every third
day, from 1954 through 1967, when I went to TAC and the F4. One got a
real serious attitude about the Air Defense mission back then.

And this would not have helped those Tu-95s at all.

Carey Sublette