Pentagon confirms ‘low-yield’ nuclear weapon on submarine

DefenceTalk.com ^

[DTAD]

The US Defense Department announced Tuesday that it has deployed a submarine carrying a new long-range missile with a relatively small nuclear warhead, saying it is in response to Russian tests of similar weapons.

[HapaxLegamenon]

Smaller warhead means taking out bunker without damaging outside target and without nuclear fallout. Allows for precision target.

[null and void]

Davy Crockett

[BobL]

Yea, scary stuff. I’ve seen (obviously deactivated) artillery shell nukes in museums...wow...just glad they were never used!

[fuente]

I just don’t get it. Why put it on a Boomer? It give location away and would be seen as a nuclear salvo. Put it on Tomahawks. That gives you precision on darn near EVERY platform in the arsonal. Surface ships, subs, aircraft. And make the darn thing stealth... Now you have a real weapon system...and bring back the skybolt concept in a radar evading configuration for both airship and insertion mechanism.

[Spktyr]

No, we don’t have any. It’s probably a W88 ALT 370 or similar.

https://www.airforcemag.com/article/the-neutron-bomb/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W88

[PIF]

B-52s are no longer nuclear bomb rated

[grey_whiskers]

If a hostile country detects a US SLBM, they have no way of knowing it’s a firecracker or a 335kt city buster.

[PIF]

In depth from the war zone:
Navy Missile Sub Has Begun Its First Patrol Armed With Controversial Low Yield Nukes
Proponents argue that the warheads give the United States added deterrent flexibility, but critics warn they lower the threshold for using nukes.
By Joseph Trevithick January 29, 2020

[Rebelbase]

Imagine the brief pucker factor that guy would have if that rocket misfired and petered out about 100 yards from the launch.

[Rebelbase]

I thought the neutron bomb was banned by the Carter administration?

[Spktyr]

Er, or it might be a W76, possibly a W76-2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W76

[Jim Noble]

Don’t we have lots of submarines with high yield nuclear weapons?

Why is this a story?

[PGalt]

Thanks.

[TexasGator]

It may not be directed to a hostile city.

[grey_whiskers]

How well can everyone tell that when it’s first leaving the sub?

...would *you* wait for (say) a mere 30-sec window for counterattack, to ascertain it was not headed for your capital?

[TexasGator]

How would you know it was a nuke?

[TexasGator]

“Why is this a story?”

Read the story.

[null and void]

Even when it didn’t misfire the soldier using it was still in lethal range of the explosion.

It wasn’t exactly popular with the troops...

[Telepathic Intruder]

You don’t always want to make the targeted area uninhabitable for the next 10,000 years. Through the cold war, the U.S. has always strived for smaller yet more accurate nukes. The U.S.S.R. was typically the one with big, stupid nukes.

[Spktyr]

I said we didn’t have any, then named a possible ‘regular’ nuclear warhead it could be.