I have a short thread on the new, dangerous nuclear weapon that Donald Trump has just deployed. How "small" is it? How would we use it? Why did we make it?
First, get all the details here @FAScientists. They broke the news of the deployment ten days ago. The Pentagon admitted it just two days ago. fas.org/blogs/security…
Second, how small is it? 5 Kilotons. That is 5,000 tons of explosive force. It's 1/3 the size of the 15KT bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The other sub warheads are 90KT (or 6x Hiroshima) or 455KT (30x Hiroshima). We have other air-dropped bombs that "small" but not on missiles.
To put this in perspective, let's consider "Afghanistan equivalents." In 2019, we dropped a record number of bombs on Afghanistan. Over 7,400. Our average bomb is about 500 lbs. So, that's about 1, 850 tons of bombs, or 1.8KT theguardian.com/us-news/2020/j…
The new "low-yield" warhead on our subs is almost 3 times that size. With one bomb, we could drop in 15 minutes, 3 times the ordnance we dropped on Afghanistan all last year. That is a lot of destructive force. Why would we use it?
This weapon could destroy a deeply-buried target, like the uranium enrichment facilities in Iran at Natanz or Fordow. The Pentagon war gamed such a use just a couple of years ago. newsweek.com/trump-iran-new…
In short, this new weapon is not small and it is not a deterrent. It's an immensely powerful bomb that Donald Trump could launch with just a phone call. No one could stop him. It is not a weapon anyone should have, particularly an unstable, impulsive, unconstrained politician.
