
US tests terrifying nuclear weapon powerful enough to kill hundreds of thousands - Eurongreyjoy
http://metro.co.uk/2018/05/04/us-tests-terrifying-nuclear-weapon-powerful-enough-kill-hundreds-thousands-people-7520577/
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sevensor
This is a terrible article.

> If the bomb was detonated above London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, it would wipe
> out a huge chunk of the capital and burn people as far away as Vauxhall.

First of all, we're not going to use it on London. Second, they're playing
fast and loose with the word "test." No detonations have been involved. I
couldn't tell from the article, but it seems pretty unlikely that actual
warheads had anything at all to do with the reported exercises.

~~~
dingaling
Indeed. Since it's an awful UK newspaper I think we can call this article 'a
load of bollocks' in the local vernacular.

The point of the B-61 Mod 12 is deep-penetration of buried bunkers, not mass
countervalue strikes against populations.

And at its maximum yield of 50kT it is an order of magnitude less powerful
than, say, a Trident warhead which is turn is a magnitude less than what was
common in the 1960s.

Sometimes I think that living through the Cold War gave people a sense of
proportion. My home town of Belfast was to be hit by multiple > 1MT warheads
and that was just a secondary city with docks.

~~~
dogma1138
Metro.co.uk isn’t the newspaper that would be
[https://www.metro.news](https://www.metro.news).

They were separated because the quality of the online content targeted by the
parent company was below the standard of even a British tabloid and the
editorial team was not having it.

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DrScump
The tests were of a _mockup_ of a bomb... a _dummy_ bomb with _no_ nuclear
material at all, testing only the aerodynamics and guidance of the vehicle
itself.

We don't even do _underground_ testing of nuclear warheads anymore, just
_simulations_ using mathematical modeling.

The only thing here that's "terrifying" is the "journalism".

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PuffinBlue
This article is poor. A better one (just) is linked below:

[https://www.military.com/dodbuzz/2018/05/01/air-force-
advanc...](https://www.military.com/dodbuzz/2018/05/01/air-force-advances-
testing-new-nuclear-gravity-bomb-general.html)

~~~
DrScump
It's not much better.

The tests were of a _mockup_ of a bomb... a _dummy_ bomb with _no_ nuclear
material at all.

We don't even do _underground_ testing of nuclear warheads anymore, just
_simulations_ using mathematical modeling.

The only thing here that's "terrifying" is the "journalism".

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throwaway84742
Just to help Rocket Man along with his decision making.

