Satellite images of the Beirut explosion site – before and after

Re:Satellite images of the Beirut explosion site – before an... by pavlov on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @07:15PM (#24066645)

And that's minuscule compared to the active arsenal held by United States and Russia. Their weapons are in the 400-1200kt range, and both nations have thousands of them.

Imagine several million of the Beirut explosions happening simultaneously in densely populated cities, and look at the men who hold the launch codes for these weapons.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists maintains a "Doomsday Clock" which is currently closer than ever to midnight — and they started in 1947.

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Re:Satellite images of the Beirut explosion site – before an... by walrus01 on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @07:28PM (#24066736)

I thought a number of "modern" MIRV warheads were intentionally designed smaller in the 50 to 125 kiloton class.

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Re:Satellite images of the Beirut explosion site – before an... by jabl on Thursday August 06, 2020 @04:26AM (#24069107)

The W76 used by the US and UK submarines is 90-100 kT. Most other US warheads are 300-475 kT (W78, W87, W88).

There's apparently a small number of 5-7 kT "W76 mod 2" warheads as well.

Russian warheads tend to be bigger, around 500-1000 kT, presumably to compensate for poorer accuracy.

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