Posted by Sherman in Idaho [24.32.202.166] on Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 15:54:27 :
In Reply to: Re: you eastern guys..... posted by Paul (in NY) [12.64.120.73] on Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 15:34:33 :
Kind of makes you wonder how many bombs and missiles would really work if there was a war. I suspect not very many. I "knew a guy who knew a guy" who served on a nuclear sub who said only 2 of the 20 SLBMs on board had nuclear warheads. My father worked on an early cruise-missile demonstration that involved dropping a Minuteman from a B52 and lighting the motor in mid-air that was intended only to get the Soviets excited, because the Minuteman guys knew it could never work. I suspect both sides overstated their arsenals for arms control purposes -- if you have 100 real missiles and 1000 fakes, it's easy to promise to get rid of 500 of them. I can't think of any other sort of weapon that countries have committed huge amounts of resources to over a long period of time, and yet have never tested. I don't believe there was ever a full test of an American H-bomb dropped from a plane, and nobody in the world has fully tested an armed ICBM or nuclear cruise missile. Odds are good that nobody has as many as they say they have, and if they do have them, they likely won't work. At least we can hope.
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