America Vs China

[Beastro]

Originally Posted by Prince [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

For instance, Fat man had a blast yield of 21 kilotons of tnt (88 terajoules of energy) and little boy had a yield of 13-18 kt TNT (54-75 TJ). Modern nuclear weapons (using the B83 as an example) have blast yields of up to 1.2 Megatons (1,200 Kilotons) of TNT, equivalent to 5,000 terajoules of energy. There's a pretty big difference between the impact that one of these bombs would have if detonated compared to the long term effect of fat man + little boy on Japan.

Most modern US weapons are geared to initiate below their maximum yield and, at least under Bush, there were projects looking to replace the US deterrent with warheads whose yields were below the first generation of nukes.

Big bombs are, for the most part, a waste. The only real advantage they give is that the initiation material is greater and thus the bomb doesn't been to be serviced and have parts replaced as much (mainly the tritium which has a fairly short half life).

Even a megaton+ nuke still wouldn't destroy a whole city, nor would the after effects be as bad as the Jap bombs, again because of air bursts.