Nilgiri
BANNED
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2015
- Messages
- 24,797
- Reaction score
- 81
- Country
- Location
Tactical miniaturization is not required for MIRV...India has no interest in wasting its nuclear material on tactical nukes since we are not worried about capitulation of the country by Enemy conventional forces.....besides nuclear mines are way more effective for that endeavour.
Small tactical nukes have piss poor yield efficiency (for weight of material used). Going by the 5 kt claim on Nasr's maximum warhead yield (which I believe has been significantly overstated), you would still be creating about a 1km deadly airburst with about 150 m fireball....using up about 100kg of U-235
100 kg of U-235 is about a 22 cm diameter sphere. Add on top of this the conventional explosive needed (in fact it is the radius of this that severely restricts the yield in the first place for a tactical nuke) and the Nasr does not look like a viable carrier for even this amount over any significant distance (though I would have to do some calculations and estimations for this when I get some time if people are interested enough). I really wonder if they have gone for closer to the critical mass of U-235 (15kg) accepted the yield only around the 0.5kt (or even less) and decided to economize the material use. This would also make the claimed 60km range of Nasr make more sense. In which case 0.5 kt gives a blast radius of about 400 metres and fireball of 60 metres.
Using 100kg for a 5kt tactical nuke when you can get 100 kt from it (theoretically) might in fact illustrate that Pakistan has some serious problems with designing a nuke past the generation 1 type given their proper nuke tests were both boosted fission and gave 32kt and even 15kt (according to them - which many have since disputed).
Small tactical nukes have piss poor yield efficiency (for weight of material used). Going by the 5 kt claim on Nasr's maximum warhead yield (which I believe has been significantly overstated), you would still be creating about a 1km deadly airburst with about 150 m fireball....using up about 100kg of U-235
100 kg of U-235 is about a 22 cm diameter sphere. Add on top of this the conventional explosive needed (in fact it is the radius of this that severely restricts the yield in the first place for a tactical nuke) and the Nasr does not look like a viable carrier for even this amount over any significant distance (though I would have to do some calculations and estimations for this when I get some time if people are interested enough). I really wonder if they have gone for closer to the critical mass of U-235 (15kg) accepted the yield only around the 0.5kt (or even less) and decided to economize the material use. This would also make the claimed 60km range of Nasr make more sense. In which case 0.5 kt gives a blast radius of about 400 metres and fireball of 60 metres.
Using 100kg for a 5kt tactical nuke when you can get 100 kt from it (theoretically) might in fact illustrate that Pakistan has some serious problems with designing a nuke past the generation 1 type given their proper nuke tests were both boosted fission and gave 32kt and even 15kt (according to them - which many have since disputed).
Last edited: