[gaijin]

The adjustable yield means you can tailor the bomb much more finely to the target need:

Imagine you have submarine pens riiiight next to a major population center:

What would be nice is to take out those subs in one flash, but leave their populace intact.

That would mean after you do that, you could still deter him from striking YOUR pop center (like NYC or LA, maybe):

You didn’t hit THAT, right? You were working on a legit military target. So assuming some rationality on the part of the enemy, he’s not yet bound to go and do that.

So you’re in the escalation Driver’s Seat, see..?

That is how it would work with a Soviet, or maybe the PRC leadership.

An Iranian or Norker..? Ok, that might be a different can of worms, yes.

But the idea is you mow the law a bit before you take out the entire city, capiche..?

[gaijin]

mow the lawN, sorry.

Not law.

[doorgunner69]

Even if you tailor the yield to the target, the various nasty side effects beyond blast still occur. Prompt and lingering radiation do not go away with reduced yield.

Not quite the same as using a 250 or 2,000 lb gen purpose bomb.

[null and void]

Taking out a goodly fraction of our Pacific fleet while leaving Honolulu untouched worked out well for the Japanese...

[SamAdams76]

That makes no sense at all.

[publius911]

What would be nice is to take out those subs in one flash, but leave their populace intact.

The last thing the world needs is "humane wars..."