Nuclear Warfare and the Cold War

1
Nuclear Warfare and the Cold War

• How I learned to love the Bomb.

2
FissionNuclear weaponsAtomic bomb

• Uranium 235 atoms are split in a chain reaction
• This causes a massive release of energy
• Basic Nuclear Fission

3
FusionThermonuclear weaponsHydrogen bomb

• Hydrogen Isotopes are forced together to create
  energy process that powers sun.
• Needs a fission explosion to create enough heat
  and pressure to start reaction
• Creates much bigger explosion

4
What is yield?

• The power of nuclear and thermonuclear explosions
  are expressed in tons of TNT equivalent explosive
  power.
• Nuclear weapons are in Kilotons(kt)
• Thermonuclear weapons are in Megatons(mt)
• The Hiroshima bomb was 16-18 kt
• The largest ever detonated was 59 mt

5
Delivery(or how to send nuclear joy to your
enemy)

• 1st bombs were delivered like any other bomb.by
  airplane.
• This was the primary method of delivery until the
  mid 50s.
• By 1980 their where several ways to deliver
  nuclear weapons
• Airplane, Artillery, Missile
• There were several varieties of each.

6
Airplanes

• Bombers original means of delivery since early
  bombs were big and needed big airplanes
• As the Cold War progressed advances in tech
  produced smaller weapons and a greater diversity
  of airplane delivery systems.
• Today most military combat aircraft can deliver
  some sort of nuclear weapon
• Bombers tend to be strategic and fighters/fighter
  bombers tend to be tactical

7
Artillery

• By the late 50s nuclear weapons had been reduced
  in size so they could fit into large cannons.
• These were developed to use smaller atomic
  weapons on the battlefield.
• These are called tactical nuclear weapons.

8
MissilesGuided missiles to be accurate

• There are 2 types of guided missiles
• Ballistic launched very high in big arcing
  trajectory
• Cruise flies like an airplane low to the
  ground.
• Germans were the first to develop both in WW2
• V1 cruise and V2 ballistic

9
Ballistic missiles

• Ballistic missiles are categorized by range
• Short range ballistic missile SRBM
• Medium range ballistic missile MRBM
• Intermediate IRBM
• Intercontinental - ICBM

10
Submarines

• By the early 60s the US developed nuclear powered
  submarines
• They also developed a system to launch ballistic
  missiles from submarines
• These are called SLBMs
• The submarines are called Ballistic missile
  Submarines or boomers
• Primarily strategic in nature.

11
Cruise missiles

• Fly like an airplane
• Can be launched from
• the ground (GLCM)
• From airplanes (ALCM)
• From ships and subs (SLCM)
• Tend to be more accurate and have a shorter range
  than ballistic missiles
• Can be used tactically or strategically

12
Other developments

• MIRV Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle
• Basically putting many warheads on one missile.
• Done in response to restrictions on the number of
  missiles
• Neutron Bomb enhanced radiation device
• Developed to be used against Warsaw Pact Armies
• Reduces physical damage of explosion while being
  lethal to people
• Tactical nuclear weapon

13
Defending against Nuclear Weapons

• Airplanes Shoot them down before they get to
  target
• Cruise missiles very hard to shoot down
• Ballistic missiles- almost impossible to shoot
  down ABM systems
• ABM Anti-Ballistic Missile
• Early ones such as Nike-Hercules used nuclear
  warheads
• Not very effective

14
How to fight a nuclear war.

• First Strike take out your enemies nuclear
  forces before he can use them against you
• Deterance have enough nukes to survive or
  launch counter-strike before his weapons arrive
• MAD Mutual Assured Destruction
• When both sides have enough nukes and delivery
  systems to ensure that they can launch a
  retaliatory strike that will destroy the attacker
• Came about when the USSR finally had enough ICBMs
  to hit US.

15
How each side organized its nuclear forces.

• US developed nuclear Triad
• Equal distribution of strategic nuclear weapons
  among bombers, submarines and ballistic missiles
• Allowed greater flexiblity and less vulnerability
• USSR had mostly ICBMs
• 70 of Soviet strategic nukes in silos in ICBMs,
  rest in subs and bombers

16
Effects of nukes

• Detailed effects on a few american cities
• http//www.atomicarchive.com/Example/index.shtml
• Blast radius based on size
• http//www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction297
  contentId367
• List of US nukes
• http//nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Allbom
  bs.html