# It's the era of downsizing - The largest nuke in the US arsenal is now only 1.2 megatons **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 27, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965 "2011-10-27T14:10:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/1 "2011-10-27T14:10:35Z")
[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45031536/ns/us\_news/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45031536/ns/us_news/) > [@](#): > > Put into service in 1962, when Cold War tensions peaked during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the B53 weighed 10,000 pounds and was the size of a minivan. According to the American Federation of Scientists, it was 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing as many as 140,000 people and helping end World War II. > > The B53 was designed to destroy facilities deep underground, and it was carried by B-52 bombers. With its destruction, the next largest bomb in operation will be the B83, said Hans Kristensen, a spokesman for the Federation of American Scientists. It’s 1.2 megatons, while the B53 was 9 megatons. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/2 "2011-10-27T14:22:45Z")
We’ll regret doing this when the aliens land. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/3 "2011-10-27T22:51:01Z")
This may be the break the McCain campaign has been waiting for! ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/4 "2011-10-27T23:07:21Z")
So when the killer asteroid comes a calling, we’ll have no space shuttle \* and \* no massive nukes. Well, we’re boned. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/5 "2011-10-27T23:20:47Z")
Luckily, we can just duct tape seven or eight B83s together if we really need to. Unless they just snap together like Legos? ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/6 "2011-10-28T08:22:48Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Luckily, we can just duct tape seven or eight B83s together if we really need to. Unless they just snap together like Legos? Tends to be velcro these days. The Russians just nail theirs together though. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/7 "2011-10-28T14:10:22Z")
Mr. President, we cannot allow there to be a Bomb Nailing Gap! ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/8 "2011-10-28T14:11:07Z")
The [press release from NNSA on this](http://www.nnsa.energy.gov/mediaroom/pressreleases/b53dismantle102511) crossed my desk this week. 9 megatons is a big damned bomb – the plan was to try to crush underground bunkers by brute force, even if we couldn’t hit them or weren’t sure exactly where they were. There _was_ a larger bomb in the American arsenal, apparently – one version of the B41 allegedly was expected to produce a 25 MT yield. This sort of thing gives me the willies. edit: the NNSA link I posted has a Youtube video of them dropping the damned thing, although it’s an inactive dummy of some kind (no boom). ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/9 "2011-10-28T14:36:39Z")
I just figured out what that blunt, fat bomb shape reminds me of – cartoonist Herblock’s recurring “character” representing the atomic bomb as an unshaven brute. Example [here](http://www.brooklynpeace.org/brooklynforpeace/committees/nuclear-zero/images/Mayors%20City%20For%20Peace%20flyer.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/10 "2011-10-28T14:44:51Z")
I believe we are going to a more “accurately aimed” model rather thatn the “big hammer” approach. The more precisely we can deliver the device, the less powerful it needs to be. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-era-of-downsizing-the-largest-nuke-in-the-us-arsenal-is-now-only-1-2-megatons/600965/11 "2011-10-28T16:46:09Z")
In order to destroy underground bunkers you really really want to penetrate into the earth so that you can couple the shock to the ground. With something like a 10m penetration you can decrease the required yield of the bomb by something like two orders of magnitude (numbers may be off, I haven’t looked at them in a bit). The main issue with bunker defeat, then, is designing weapons that can survive the deceleration of impact rather than increasing the yield high enough.