• partial_accumen
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    2 months ago

    Additionally, this simulator likely assumes that the warheads will explode with the designed yield. There is a surprising amount of work to rebuild and maintain a nuclear warhead on a regular basis for it to work as designed. If Russia hasn’t maintained their warheads, then they might only give fission yields (like Hiroshima), not H bomb yields. At worst, it may not even be fissile and just end up being a dirty bomb.

    I’m betting China is doing a better job of maintaining their warheads.

    • bitteroldcoot@piefed.socialOP
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      2 months ago

      Wow, someone who actually knows what they are talking about. I’m impressed.

      There is a huge amount of difference between making a device go boom, and delivering a device to the target in a functional state. Vibrations, heat stress, it’s an ugly nasty ride on top an ICBM.