[ExSoldier]

Manpads, so called suitcase nuclear bombs are quite real but they give a nominal yield of only about .2 KT. Small, tiny in terms of destruction. Of course the EMP might be significant to the region. On the plus side, while the manpads do exist (at least in our inventory) they do require a lot of maintenance and it's extremely doubtful that any secreted on US soil during the cold war would still be viable. How can I be so certain? My recently deceased father in law held a SC.D in nuclear physics. Never heard of an SC.D? Neither had I. But as I did the research for the eulogy, I discovered that it is actually an order of magnitude higher than a Ph.d. The Ph.d degree requires a certain number of hours in the humanities like philosophy, while the SC.D is pure science and this old guy was the top of the heap, having been the head honcho of a nuke plant during his time with a major power company before retirement. So when he spoke to me of nominal yield and maintenance I knew he knew what he was speaking of. I stopped worrying about those things a good many years ago. Which is not to say that a real device like a warhead might not have been smuggled across the Mexican border into our country by Iranian agents in pursuit of a future "SUM OF ALL FEARS" terrorist scenario!

[Riley]

Manpads, so called suitcase nuclear bombs are quite real but they give a nominal yield of only about .2 KT.

Last time I checked, MANPADS was MAn Portable Air Defense; Stingers and SA-7s and the like. You're thinking of SADMs, perhaps?

[grey_whiskers]

My doctorate required nothing but Math, Chemistry, and Physics classes at the graduate level...

Cheers!

[Quix]

No doubt about your accuracy on such scores . . .

However . . .

Given the oligarchy’s schemes . . . and desires to bring this great land down around the ankles of all the serfs and slaves . . .

and various roague states with the know how . . . and the deliberately porous borders . . .

I have NO DOUBT that there are sufficient nukes scattered strategically around awaiting the oligarchy’s signal for lighting them off.

Shoot, the oligarchy has the power to have them transferred to the terrorists from our own stockpiles should they desire to do it that way.

They can certainly manage it from say North Korea, if they find that particularly convenient.

Maintenance of such crackers could be a little bit of a challenge depending on where such are located—again, not a real problem with an octopus with such incredible resources.