We used to say that the Soviet anti-submarine doctrine was: “Hear a noise, blow up half the ocean!” I guess that it is true now.
Against a carrier group it would likely be detected before it got within a hundred miles. But against a U.S port city...no warning, just FLASH-BOOM! No incoming track to indicate point of origin (though by admitting they might have it they would be retaliation target #1).
It may only be able to carry a 1 megaton warhead. Whew. That sets my mind at ease. I was worried about that 100 megaton claim.
So basically we have another kind of orbiting nuclear satellite weapon.
This type will be orbiting underwater.
Drop it in the Mariana’s Trench and crack the planet anyone?
Not only is this perhaps one of the most fearsome and powerful weapons ever developed, it is much more likely to be delivered to points where its potential may be maximized largely undetected.
Just consider the tsunami wave formed by its detonation alone, and multiply that with the fierce column of heat and radioactivity that would be thrown up and scattered far through the earth’s atmosphere. Makes ICBM warheads seem like firecrackers in comparison.
Nuclear weapon air bursts are bad enough. A subsurface marine detonation of these dimensions would be infinitely worse.
Even in open ocean. In a port or relatively shallow coastal waters (like the English Channel), the disruption to human activity on this planet wold be impossible to describe beforehand, and perhaps not even afterward.
Maybe we should seek good relations with them instead of letting NeoCons push us to war.
“Mine’s bigger.”
“What?”
“My cucumber. Mine’s bigger.”
oH NOES! NOT THE BIG, GIANT, TORPEDO!
The Baker Test was 20kt and sank the Saratoga and radiated the other ships enough to kill anyone on them.
You don’t need a big warhead for a nuclear torpedo.
Still and all, it is not a big a threat as democrats. That weapon could possibly destroy parts of the country; the democrats would destroy the entire country.
“One peeng only, Visheelius.”
But, but the US Military is the best because of strength in diversity and free flowing gender identification!
How can a torpedo be intercontinental?
5.56mm
[ 100 MT is a massive warhead. The biggest nuke ever exploded was the 50 MT Tsar Bomba. ]
Tsunami Tsarter!