Russia plans to wipe out the USA with new generation neucs

[Virginiá]

All of this is interesting and what not, but Russia can already send America back to the stone age and has been able to for generations. We can do the same. Even China can, and some Western European countries too. The only difference here is the method and creativity involved.

And even if they nuked Yellowstone and even if that did trigger some 2012-style cataclysmic eruption, we'd still have a ton of 2nd-strike options that would allow us to retaliate and turn all regions of Russia with civilization into ash. Hell, even our ICBMs would still be operational for some time after that. The people in those bunkers are equipped to survive for a long time I think, even if topside is too toxic for human life.

[Virginiá]

Yesss! High-altitude EMPs are just another way we can destroy ourselves, except that way is even more sadistic because we'll basically tear ourselves apart as modern society cannot survive without electricity. Too many people, most of whom have no idea what to do without utilities. I think it is debatable whether a technologically advanced country could actually recover from that if it went on for long enough. It doesn't matter if the military is partially protected, because they would still need to be deployed in massive numbers to try to maintain order stateside.

At that point all you're doing is damage control, or maybe retaliating with nukes in which it's game over for sure. At the very least, America's status as a superpower would be over.

[Virginiá]

All of this is interesting and what not, but Russia can already send America back to the stone age and has been able to for generations. We can do the same. Even China can, and some Western European countries too. The only difference here is the method and creativity involved.

it would take way more than the 75ish nukes the PRC has to send us back to the stone age.

Hypothetically speaking, if 50 nukes hit the continental United States (some population centers, military bases, etc), what do you think the next 5-10 years would be like?

You don't need to blanket the entire country to cause their society to implode.

[Virginiá]

A single EMP blast (even perfectly placed) wouldn't end us either.  Stop reading the Chicken Little stories guys.

I don't think anyone just said one. Kal mentioned a story about one stray missile but that was just in the context of knocking out early warning systems and such.

It'd probably take a lot of them. Doable, but still.

edit: Kal did say two, but the # of warheads needed depends on their yield too

[Virginiá]

The US is SURE to be destroyed without any response. Your country is completely unprotected.

No one is truly protected against nuclear weapons right now. None of what you posted fundamentally changes the game at least until every country has missile defenses that are nearly impenetrable, at which point strategically placed nukes become significantly more important.

And if that ever becomes a reality, it's sure to be far into the future, at which point technology still gives a country like America ways to respond. Russia's population may not be overly vulnerable to tsunamis but countries of the future can still use drones to tunnel into enemy territory with fail safe payloads that can be deployed at a moment's notice. In a world with such destructive weapons and increasing levels of technology, odd and convoluted schemes like this will become the norm.

[Virginiá]

Good point. The entire industrial complex of Russia is overwhelmed with problems that are getting more serious every year.

The most hillarious aspect is that they now have problems obtaining even some really essential spare parts for their current arsenal, because they didn't bother to manufacture them ourselves. Why bother? They got oil and gas and could simply buy stuff abroad... then the sanctions came and oil prices dropped.

Russian troll confirmed. Incoming ban in 5 seconds

[Virginiá]

Meanwhile, they can't get their fancy new tank to finish a parade.

Why can't you see that this was intentionally planned?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/07/new-russian-hi-tech-tank-grinds-to-halt-in-victory-day-parade-rehearsal

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It's better we don't question things which we clearly can't understand!

*grovels at Putin's feet*