Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Kapitan
The media keeps saying a nuke will level a city well id doubt it 3 or 4 i think for a city like london and then yeah ok maybe flat but not just one unless its detonated mid air and not ground zero.
|
Alrighty, let's put this to the test.
Let's say that Russia gets a bee in their bonnet over something and decides to see if a Typhoon can successfully launch its missiles at the west.
One Sturgeon heads for the UK, but it's a MIRV so we'll just use one warhead on London for fairness of the test.
Our 200kt warhead streaks through the atmosphere and detonates at prime altitude (bout 0.8 miles I think) above the Houses of Parliament.
Now, obviously Parliament is long gone, not that that will bother Mr Blair much as no doubt he'll be deep underground while the rest of us fry
So, let's see what else is gonna get levelled:
Right...(consults Google Earth)...well, it's not good news folks.
I'm afraid that, Peckhams gone, sorry Del Boy, Chelsea's gone, Mayfair, Rotherhithe...oh dear, oh dear...and that's just within the 4.3 limit...if we go out to the maximum 6.5 mile limit we've got Greenwich, Lewisham, Shepards Bush...that's gonna screw up the BBC.
So, yeah, it's not totally levelled London, but it's certainly done a good job of Central London which at the end of the day, is where you've got the Central Business District...so we're looking at a huge financial cost...and lives...well, I really dread to think what sort of casualties we're looking at, and that's BEFORE the fall out.
With a usual prevailing wind from the southwest, we're looking at fallout...oh, spreading over most of Essex, and probably a fair bit of Suffolk. I'd be staying indoors then, so should you Kap.
And that's a
small nuke, now let's reset London and drop the Tsar Bomba on the same spot!
Not that this is really practical, as the Bomba was never really intended for use in warfare, it was more a case of 'My nuke is bigger than yours', but still, it's an example of extremes.
Our specially modified TU-95 somehow makes it into British airspace and releases its payload at approx 31,500ft. Luckily for the crew of the TU-95, the Tsar Bomba has a retardation parachute, otherwise they'd be on a suicide mission
(that being said, the fact that the wing fuel tanks were removed to fit the bomb in means that they probably won't make it back to Russia 
). The 27 tonne bomb floats down through the air and detonates approximately 12,000 ft above the Houses of Parliament.
The 15-5 psi blast radius is approximately 10 miles in radius, so that destroys everything from the Houses of Parliament out to Bromley, Croydon, probably the outskirts of Dagenham and Enfield.
Then the 2 psi blast radius heads out to approx 18 miles, which does heavy damage and firestorm damage out past Dartford, Epsom, Hounslow.
And finally the 1 psi which'll cause light damage out to 26 miles which takes in Gravesend, the outskirts of Rochester, Woking, Slough, Brentwood and Hemel Hempstead.
That will effectively remove London from the face of the planet I think, casualties through the roof and financial damage too high to count. Not that something as huge as the Tsar Bomba would be used due to delivery problems, though its interesting to note that the maximum payload of the Bomba was originally 100mt but it was cut back to approx 50mt for the tests...and somewhat fortunately for London, most of the blast energy was directed up into the atmosphere where the mushroom cloud rose up to 40 miles.
So in conclusion, I'd sum up that, yes, with the right magnitude a
single nuke can destroy, or at least severely damage London, and at the end of the day, that's just as good an outcome to the enemy as total destruction.
Bibliography:
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/hydesim.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/slbm/r39.htm
http://survival.anomalies.net/nukes.html
http://www.nd.edu/~nsl/Lectures/phys..._Warfare_8.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-39_missile
And Google Earth