If Russia uses an atomic bomb, it becomes a legitimate target of all nuclear powers
The specter of nuclear winter once again looms over the world. Vladimir Putin has announced that he is ready to use him in his aggression against Ukraine. And Ramzan Kadyrov and Dmitry Medvedev sang to him. Kim Jong Un, no less strange person, tested a new ballistic missile that landed in Japanese waters.
The nuclear bombs available in the world are of three types: the first is the so-called strategic one, which is a shortcut to an immediate apocalypse. An example of such a weapon is the missile complexes of the USSR. They are thrown from mines, carry a large nuclear charge, fly far – up to 6000 km. From such an impact, the diameter of the destruction is 160 km. It’s like Chernobyl multiplied by 10. There is no chance of survival. Those who survive will envy those who die immediately. A true apocalypse.
The second type is the so-called tactical weapons, which are launched from ships and planes. They carry an average charge that leaves a “scorched earth” in a radius of up to 30km, but there is a chance of survival. Figuratively speaking, this is half of Chernobyl. Tactical nuclear weapons are a kind of doorman of the Apocalypse.
Analysts told Forbes magazine that it is very likely that Moscow will use tactical nuclear weapons, which have a relatively short range and are used on the battlefield against the opposing army or to destroy a major logistics hub. They are smaller than long-range strategic nuclear missiles that
shoot down entire cities thousands of kilometers from the launch site,
but their power can be commensurate. The most powerful tactical nuclear warhead could be 100 kilotons, while the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons. The military explains that a typical tactical weapon used on the battlefield has a yield of between 1 and 50 kilotons and a damage range of approximately 5 square kilometers. This type of warhead can be mounted on various systems designed to launch conventional explosives and can be launched from both land and water.
These missiles are tracked when launched through their guidance systems. During the deactivation, the nuclear powers shared their targeting algorithms with each other. The risk of these weapons is high, but there is still mutual control.
And the third type are nuclear weapons with a small charge. When they attack, they wipe out everything in a radius of up to 8km and don’t need any platforms up front. It is actually a nuclear warhead that can be placed on any carrier such as the C 300 or C 400 missile systems, Hymars, or even a long range cannon shell. Although the damage appears to be less, these weapons have virtually no way of being tracked and neutralized before the moment of detonation. But their defeat is called “mini-Chernobyl”.
The main defense of the world against destruction is the mutual control treaties between some countries
We are talking about the countries of the so-called Nuclear Club – USA, Great Britain, France, Russia, China, which officially have atomic bombs. And India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea also have similar weapons, but unofficially. According to the doctrines, if one of them begins preparations to launch a nuclear warhead, none of the leaders will wait for it to take off. A preemptive strike would be launched simultaneously by several, and perhaps all, nuclear powers. Because this is the basis of the idea of mutual restraint. And if a nuclear attack is carried out on a non-nuclear country, all the others are obliged to give a demonstrative response to the attacker.
This was done to counter the risk of dictators using nuclear weapons to punish their neighbor. By the way, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia and the Republic of South Africa also obtained nuclear weapons in the 1980s. Romania, Yugoslavia and South Korea in the gray area, but it is indisputably accepted that they can produce in conceivable times. The idea is that if someone uses a nuclear weapon, the whole world order collapses, and thus the aggressor should be the immediate target of an asymmetrical response.
North Korea is believed to have had an atomic bomb since 2006. It is unclear how operational it is, but
an underground experience was carried out,
that, according to seismological data, it is not known how successful it was. The country constantly carries out provocative launches of ballistic missiles, like the last one a few days ago.
A special case is the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which handed over their nuclear weapons to Russia after the collapse of the USSR in exchange for guarantees of their safety. If Moscow were to use nuclear weapons against Kiev, it is very likely that Kazakhstan and Ukraine would ask for their supplies to be restored. The same goes for Romania and Sweden.
NATO intelligence indicates that Russia is planning to use so-called low-yield nuclear weapons. According to the data, the plan was to launch a small military warhead at the military airport near Lviv, with the aim of avoiding many civilian casualties, but to show the world that they could. The hope is that the 8 people who stand between Putin and the button will not carry out his order. Because after the mobilization, the Russian president and his orders lose legitimacy. Whether Ukraine is a NATO member or not, there will be a nuclear response to Russia.
What is the nuclear winter
A hypothesis in which, after the use of a nuclear weapon, a large amount of dust and soot is released into the stratosphere, which obscures the sunlight and the climate of the entire planet becomes arctic. This is, of course, just a mathematical model, but evidence of the Earth’s geological history suggests it is quite realistic. For example, the most compelling theory for dinosaur extinction is that a volcano erupted in the area of modern day Reunion Island, causing a large cloud of dust that obscured the sun and the resulting abrupt climate change during the Jurassic period.
Neutron bomb or the golden rocket
The neutron bomb is a type of nuclear weapon invented in 1958 in the United States and developed in France, the USSR and China.
It is essentially a small 1 kiloton atomic bomb (15 times smaller than the one dropped on Hiroshima) that is charged with a beryllium isotope and produces a direct stream of neutrons that only destroys living things and electronic communications, but doesn’t cause much destruction. The American project was suspended by President John F. Kennedy, but resumed under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Their idea was that these would be weapons that destroy ballistic missiles in flight.
In the 1990s, most of the nuclear powers abandoned them due to their obvious inhumanity. It is assumed that today only China possesses neutron bombs. The USSR successfully tested the missiles of the Soviet A-135 “Amur” anti-missile defense system. It is unclear whether Russia today has the technology to support such a high-tech weapon or whether it bought it from AliExpress.
The American anti-missile LIM-49A Spartan, adopted in 1975, carries a five megaton neutron warhead and, to increase the flow of particles, its inner surface is coated with a layer of gold. That’s why they call it the “golden rocket”.
The atomic generation
From 1945 to August 1963, 525 nuclear bombs were detonated around the world with a total power of 294 megatons. The most intense nuclear years were 1954-1958 and 1960-1963.The record for the number of explosions is held by the United States: 35 bombs in 1962.
Nuclear explosions release 10 million tons of radioactive dust into the atmosphere per year. Its toxicity is measured by a formula according to which each megaton of power corresponds to a radiation commensurate with that of 1.5 million kg of radium. This dust falls into the soil by precipitation, but part of it rises into the atmosphere and an artificial radioactive belt is formed at an altitude of 400-1000 km. It extends into the lower part of the Van Allen natural belt and contains over 100 isotopes.
Among them, cesium 137, carbon 14, strontium 90, iodine 131, etc. they are highly toxic. Many of the isotopes have a long half-life – for iodine 230, for example, it’s 75,200 years – so this radioactive belt remains virtually forever.
In 1962 it was estimated that if aerial nuclear explosions continued, by 1970 the planet’s radioactivity would exceed the safe level for humans. Due to the general high level of radiation, people conceived in the decade 1954-1963 were called the “atomic generation”.
