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RE: Odds and Ends — 3 May 2024

in #oddsandends7 months ago

Why do you think the US nuclear arsenal is useless? The only way for any country to not become a victim of nuclear extortion is to either have nuclear weapons, have a nuclear deterrent provided with by an ally or be so unimportant or remote as to be uninteresting to a nuclear power engaged in nuclear extortion.

The possibility of a Trump presidency means that Japan, South Korea and Australia are more likely to acquire their nuclear arsenal than ever. In Europe, countries like Sweden and Poland are likely to consider getting their own nukes going forward. Tearing up the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty would be no small matter. But given Russia's aggressive posturing, countries bordering or near Russia might find it necessary to become nuclear powers.

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Not my meme but, FWIW, I tend to think that a fusion arsenal is useless. Now that the nuclear genie is out of the bottle, a fission deterrence is de rigueur for major and regional powers. But fusion arsenals are just asking for disaster.

The largest fission bombs tend to have quite large yields as well. Besides, the trend for quite some time has been to use multiple re-entry vehicles to target several targets in the same local area for maximum impact without wasting yield.