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[Bauglir]

So basically, it's "hope it predetonates instead of the implosion core going off?"

Um. Guys. The reason modern nuclear weapons won't go off unless they go through a specific sequence is because they're designed that way. It's a built-in safety feature, not something inherent to the technology. You're hoping that North Korea designed its weapons the same way.

Well, actually, by my understanding, you need to slam the uranium cores directly into one another at the right speed while firing a neutron gun into it at precisely the right moment so that you at once have critical mass and the trigger for the explosion proper. If you blow off chunks of the cores or don't fire the neutron gun before the TNT detonation that propels one core into the other destroys said gun (which isn't going to be accomplished by blowing up the warhead unexpectedly), you don't get a nuclear kaboom. And you can't really store a supercritical nuclear weapon, because it WILL blow up in storage if you're dumb enough to try it, given enough time. The neutron gun is a timing mechanism that ensures it goes off when you want it to.

[Lord Shonus]

Precisely. An ICBM warhead, being smaller than a man (seriously. They only come up to my waist.) would not be an easy target anyway, and, due to it's orbital path, has the full acceleration of the Earth's gravity well. Upgraded Scud types like the DPRK has are much larger targets, and, being sub-orbital, have a fraction of the acceleration.


SlimeHunt. What do you think that massive military budget goes to? Primarily training and maintenance. Also a very large portion of the food. Small stature from malnutrition is something of an asset. One hallmark of USSR military equipment is that it tended to be more cramped than Western designs.

Bauglir: That's a correct description of a gun-type device. Implosion weapons are even trickier.

[Zrk2]

So lets get this war started!

[Nikov]

How many in the Army eats well? All of them. The Army eats first. Also I'd expect their level of training to be very high. It really only costs a little ammunition and ordinance to train infantrymen, and while they might not get a lot of range time with big ticket weapons, I would expect them to be superb at the patrol, ambush and entrench game.

[Il Palazzo]

Precisely. An ICBM warhead, being smaller than a man (seriously. They only come up to my waist.) would not be an easy target anyway, and, due to it's orbital path, has the full acceleration of the Earth's gravity well. Upgraded Scud types like the DPRK has are much larger targets, and, being sub-orbital, have a fraction of the acceleration.

Still, some people think that this is a sensible enough idea to actually build these systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_missile_defence
You just don't try shooting it with a minigun. Use something with big enough explosion radius to ensure a hit, regardless of the target's size(Moscow's ABM is my favourite in this respect).

[Lord Shonus]

The idea is that even a limited defence, however small, is better than nothing. For that matter, Moscow's ABM batteries date back to the 1960's, when they were actually viable weapons.

[Nikov]

No such thing as a non-viable weapon. They kill Israeli soldiers with the same sling design David used against Goliath.

[Eugenitor]

Okay, yeah, it'd probably be gun-type in an artillery round. My mistake.

It only needs to be exact if it was built that way. If both halves are fairly close to but not at supercriticality, and the explosive to jam them together is at the pointy end (the by far most likely place of hitting a falling artillery shell), it's almost certainly going to detonate with a good portion of its radioactive mass. This is a horrible and insane way to design a nuclear weapon, which fits North Korea perfectly, and the design of choice if you're intentionally trying to make it blow up if it gets shot down.

Hell, there existed (in the US!) nuke artillery that would start to ignite if it pointed downwards. We spent a lot of time and money to make nuclear weapons that don't go kaboom if anything violent happens in their vicinity.

The North Koreans will likely try to fight a great deal like the Viet Cong, only this time we get to knock out their supply sources. Sunnis and Shiites have their sugar daddies, but who's going to resupply the North Koreans once the government and military infrastructure go down? They're trained for war, but are they trained for guerilla war?

[Lord Shonus]

Nuclear weapons DO NOT WORK THAT WAY. To achieve critical mass, a very specific set of events has to operate in a very specific way. If one of those events does not happen at the exact right time and manner, there's no boom. The design flaw you are referring to led to subcriticality, a hazard for atomic weapons kept assembled for long periods of time. This would generate a significant radiation hazard, and a noticible heat release, but these would be easily detected and dealt with.


As for NK supplies, they are MUCH less vulnerable than you think. GPS-guided bombs are not accurate enough to guarantee destruction of hardened stockpiles, and laser-guided weapons are effectively useless with the retirement of the F-117. (A laser guided bomb requires an aircraft to loiter until impact. None of the aircraft that currently carry them would be easily able to survive in the massive SAM threat around such an important installation.) That's assuming that they can even FIND the caches. The DPRK is extremely good at camouflage. It's likely that they have been stockpiling fuel and ammo since the last war.

[Zrk2]

Nuclear weapons DO NOT WORK THAT WAY. To achieve critical mass, a very specific set of events has to operate in a very specific way. If one of those events does not happen at the exact right time and manner, there's no boom. The design flaw you are referring to led to subcriticality, a hazard for atomic weapons kept assembled for long periods of time. This would generate a significant radiation hazard, and a noticible heat release, but these would be easily detected and dealt with.


As for NK supplies, they are MUCH less vulnerable than you think. GPS-guided bombs are not accurate enough to guarantee destruction of hardened stockpiles, and laser-guided weapons are effectively useless with the retirement of the F-117. (A laser guided bomb requires an aircraft to loiter until impact. None of the aircraft that currently carry them would be easily able to survive in the massive SAM threat around such an important installation.) That's assuming that they can even FIND the caches. The DPRK is extremely good at camouflage. It's likely that they have been stockpiling fuel and ammo since the last war.

Too true. Many warheads can be shot with a pistol at point blank range and still will not explode, especially nuclear ones.

[RedWarrior0]

Hm... So we send a probe through the mantle to make a massive imprompteu volcano in Pyongyang?

[Bauglir]

Hm... So we send a probe through the mantle to make a massive imprompteu volcano in Pyongyang?

I see absolutely no problem with this plan. Make it so.

[Eugenitor]

Nuclear weapons DO NOT WORK THAT WAY. To achieve critical mass, a very specific set of events has to operate in a very specific way. If one of those events does not happen at the exact right time and manner, there's no boom. The design flaw you are referring to led to subcriticality, a hazard for atomic weapons kept assembled for long periods of time. This would generate a significant radiation hazard, and a noticible heat release, but these would be easily detected and dealt with.

Sigh. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_design#Warhead_design_safety

These are critical-mass events, with actual nuclear yields, happening by *accident*.

"Hardened stockpiles"? Really? Despite my misgivings about various expensive projects that never seem to reliably deliver, I'm quite certain that the US has mastered the fine art of blowing shit up real good. Barack Obama can say "Okay, guys, you get to play with the MOAB and the tactical nukes if you need them. We can't afford a protracted war; use everything you've got." and the officers of the USAF will squeal gleefully like little kids in a candy store with a hundred dollar bill, holding hands, skipping around in a circle, and singing "It's the best... war... ever..."



As for NK remnants, and they will very swiftly become remnants in an all-out US/Japanese/SK assault, is that what we'd really have to worry about? Sixty-year-old sludgy fuel and misfiring, time-weakened ammo? In a culture of authoritarians, the vast majority of who have no idea how to act independently, who will have their command networks and heavy equipment support cut off? And meanwhile, a Korean voice is on what used to be their military radio (good luck reaching HQ now- it's what we refer to as a crater!) telling them to surrender? Dear Leader reduced to fine dust, generals to gibs, their entire belief structure crushed? I foresee the same thing that happened in Germany after Hitler checked out: suicides, surrenders, not much guerilla resistance to speak of, and a Marshall Plan.

Edit: I can't believe there's anyone who still cares about image bandwidth these days.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Hm... So we send a probe through the mantle to make a massive imprompteu volcano in Pyongyang?

I see absolutely no problem with this plan. Make it so.

Yes, immedately requistion the impossible amount of matter required and blast a hole in the planet.

[sonerohi]

We need to get our terraforming and weather control perfected. Earthquakes and tornadoes constantly.