Correction an Appalachian born yuppie with no technical knowledge claims they could do it. Unless Vance got bored and went through data on the nuclear arsenal then it’s probably a safe bet that he’s making shit up. Tactical nukes are a thing and backpack nukes are somewhat possible by an army definition of portable, but a nuclear suicide vest is just fucking asanine. Frankly speaking given the general purge of everyone with competency and the general ratfucked nature of these waste of biological matter I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the nuclear arsenal isn’t even fully understood anymore because everyone competent was fired or fucked off.
You need a critical mass of material to initiate an explosion. So there is a limit to how small you can get with them. That critical mass in not including all of the other gear they need attached to get it to explode.
It’s from the 50s but as I understand it nukes as we have them now require certain physical properties and dimensions to work with that being about as small as you can get. Anything smaller and the reaction either fizzles out, you get a dirty bomb, or the explosive yield is worse than traditional explosives of equivalent size. To make it any smaller you’d need a fusion bomb most likely.
Probably, though as I noted the problem with such small nuclear arms isn’t their capacity but moreso their efficiency and consistency. A fusion bomb could help to amplify at least the capacity for destruction, assuming it can’t be circumnavigated through some technological fuckery, frankly I don’t think anyone can comment on fusion bombs with any degree of accuracy given that we haven’t figured out sustained fusion reactors.
Isn’t the smallest effective nuke the Davy Crocket? Pretty sure it’s warhead is still the size of a large hardcase suitcase.
If the US is saying Iran could do it, the US has probably already figured it out. Fallout is getting to be too damn real
Correction an Appalachian born yuppie with no technical knowledge claims they could do it. Unless Vance got bored and went through data on the nuclear arsenal then it’s probably a safe bet that he’s making shit up. Tactical nukes are a thing and backpack nukes are somewhat possible by an army definition of portable, but a nuclear suicide vest is just fucking asanine. Frankly speaking given the general purge of everyone with competency and the general ratfucked nature of these waste of biological matter I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the nuclear arsenal isn’t even fully understood anymore because everyone competent was fired or fucked off.
SADM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Munition
the M388 looks small because you’re used to seeing normal recoilless rifles, not the mongo m29 one used to propel the M388 warhead on the Crocket…
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/weapons/davy-crockett-weapon-system.html it’s certainly still ‘small’ for a nuke, but iirc the sadm is smaller.
Isn’t that from the 1950s? Maybe top secret tech has progressed since then.
You need a critical mass of material to initiate an explosion. So there is a limit to how small you can get with them. That critical mass in not including all of the other gear they need attached to get it to explode.
It’s from the 50s but as I understand it nukes as we have them now require certain physical properties and dimensions to work with that being about as small as you can get. Anything smaller and the reaction either fizzles out, you get a dirty bomb, or the explosive yield is worse than traditional explosives of equivalent size. To make it any smaller you’d need a fusion bomb most likely.
You’d still need a fission bomb, to initiate the fusion reaction.
Probably, though as I noted the problem with such small nuclear arms isn’t their capacity but moreso their efficiency and consistency. A fusion bomb could help to amplify at least the capacity for destruction, assuming it can’t be circumnavigated through some technological fuckery, frankly I don’t think anyone can comment on fusion bombs with any degree of accuracy given that we haven’t figured out sustained fusion reactors.