Daverson said:
NeutralDrow said:
Daverson said:
#2 - AN602 "Tsar Bomba"
Highest yield nuclear device detonated to date. It had a 2.3km blast radius. I don't mean the shockwave, fallout or anything else there, that's the size of the actual explosion. The total magnitude of destruction would be around 35km. That's just... D=
...pointless, I'm hoping you were going to finish.
Prohibitively expensive and difficult to make, especially compared to a number of smaller nuclear weapons that could accomplish the same thing much more cheaply. And especially since no target existed or exists that was large enough to warrant such force.
In all seriousness though, MIRVs are great and all, but... I mean, let's say you were given the choice between 3 big Christmas chocolates, or
the biggest Christmas chocolate ever made by mankind. Even if there more in the former, the latter is still the biggest!
Besides, MIRVs are much more expensive. They need much more material and a hell of a lot bigger rocket. Never mind the advanced onboard systems for such a device.
(Of course, you're arguing from a "we don't need nukes!" standpoint. But let me tell you, when the Aliens come and enslave you, because you're an easy target, you'll be thinking different!)
The Tsar Bomba was a horribly inefficient waste of destructive power. The explosion was so huge that most of its energy was uselessly expelled into space.
The tested version of the bomb was reduced to 50 Megatons from a possible 100 Megatons. The Russians calculated that the 100 Megaton bomb would almost certainly kill the pilot deploying it, and it would release enough fallout to account for 25% of all fallout emitted since the fucking invention of nuclear weapons.
Aside from that, it is far too heavy to be compatible with ICBM's, making it even more impractical.
Sure, it's a mindbogglingly powerful weapon, and it broke windows in FINLAND, but it's impractical enough to make it totally worthless.
In the case of your metaphor, the Tsar Bomba is like choosing the "biggest Christmas chocolate ever made by mankind," and then finding out the damn thing is sugar-free.