The State of Russian and American Nuclear Weapons The longer I live, the more I realize creating nuclear weapons was the not only the worst thing humans ever did, but I also realize there will be no end to the deadly weapons we develop until we get to the point where a weapon developed will be so deadly it will have the ability to wipe out the entire planet and will become useless, unless some crazed dictator feels he is going to die anyway and launches this thing. It makes one wonder what is wrong with us? No matter what kind of defense we create against these weapons it will never be 100 percent effective and with weapons of the magnitude I believe it only takes one to get through to kill millions of people. In World War II, when we were developing the first nuclear weapon we felt we had to do it, but not for the reason we hear most often which is to avoid casualties when invading Japan. I say this, because we caused far more damage with firebombs when we bombed Tokyo. It is said to be the deadliest raid in human history. The Tokyo fire department estimated 97,000 people were killed in the raid and 125,000 wounded. It is said 90,000 people were killed by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and 39,000 in Nagasaki, but there were other estimates which put the deaths as high as 146,000 and 80,000. My point is the massive fire-bombing results were in the same category as the nukes. We really needed to invent a nuclear weapon, because the Germans were working on one and were very close to developing it. We never know what is really going on in this country with weapons development since it is a very guarded topic by the government. The proof of this was when the F-117 suddenly appeared in the sky over Iraq. It was a futuristic stealth attack aircraft which had been kept secret for years and looked completely different than any other plane in the sky. I am citing this, because it proves we have weapons most of us know nothing about, but back to nukes. The Russians have been working on a nuclear weapon for years known as Kanyon or Ocean Multipurpose System Status-6. It is a nuclear tipped torpedo with an incredible range and a 100-megaton nuclear warhead. The idea is to be able to get this near land, explode it setting off a tsunami which will be littered with radioactive material and flood over an area. The estimates are if it hit New York City it would kill 8 million people immediately and injure over another 6 million plus. The warhead would be the biggest ever used. The range of the torpedo is 6,213 miles. If it has a weak point it is its speed which is said to only be a little over 100 miles per hour. Personally, I think this could change since there are now torpedoes which can travel at around 300 miles per hour and it is said this could be increased someday to as much as 600 miles per hour, since they travel in a sort of bubble reducing friction. The Russians feel this torpedo will be much harder to defend against than a missile or plane. Why would the Russians feel they need this nuke? They have a long history of invasion and attack and it has been said they think if this weapon is perfected it will scare us into never attacking them. It certainly would never stop us from a retaliatory attack against them so I don’t see them ever using it, but just the fact they would have it will probably prompt us into creating even more fearsome nuclear weapons. We might even develop a similar weapon ourselves. This is precisely the problem with nukes. It is always a race to build one which is more powerful than one someone else has. Think of this, even more nations get nuclear weapons and one leader learns he is going to die soon and decides now is the time to take out his enemies and “pushes the button.” Is this so far-fetched? When ancient Egyptian pharaohs died their servants and others were then killed and buried with them. President Donald Trump announced the following on Twitter. "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." He felt other countries such as Russia were starting to create better nukes than we currently had. He went on to say Russia was expanding their nuclear weapons and had a much newer capability than we had. It seems he was correct. It is a tough job trying to limit the number of nuclear weapons in the world and trying to stop other countries from developing nukes, especially when they look at us and say we have them so who are we to stop them from getting them. One problem is nukes are not only incredibly destructive bombs, they are also a status symbol for some countries. They want to say, “see we are as powerful as the United States and can destroy them.” If we are looking for an example of what I am talking about we don’t have to look any further than North Korea. No matter how much the North Korean people have had to suffer and die, because of sanctions against that country which were designed to stop them from developing nuclear bombs, it just hasn’t worked because their leader doesn’t care about his people, he cares more about his status. He wants to be seen as someone who has the power to destroy us. He has demonstrated this time and time again by saying exactly that. If a country really wants to develop nuclear weapons no matter what is done to stop them short of war, they will be able to do it. Years ago, the Soviet Union developed a 100-megaton nuclear weapon called the Tsar Bomba. They had set off a 50-megaton nuclear bomb in a test and it was a lot more powerful than they expected and this scared them and they decided to cancel the detonation of the 100-megaton bomb. We never developed a bomb this big. The biggest nuclear bomb the United States ever created is said to be the B41 bomb which has a yield of 25 megatons. It was said we produced about 500 of them but they were taken out of service in 1976. It is said the largest nuclear weapon in service in the United States is the B53 which has a yield of 1.2 megatons. This is miniscule compared to some of the Russians bombs. Perhaps this is the reason why we need a nuclear upgrade. |
