Topic: Nuclear Stockpile (Read 2644 times)

Rainbow 6 · « **on:** July 25, 2009, 06:45:10 PM »

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Nuclear Stockpile
Â« on: October 27, 2008, 11:36:01 PM Â» Quote

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A news article on the age of the US nuclear arsenal got me thinking about the arms race that probably lead up to the (1st) Succession War. Thought I'd try and type this up, get some input. Now entering the Periphery Uprising I'm gonna assume that the Houses didn't have a massive stockpile of such weapons at least not the numbers used in the conflict. Granted there is an incident like the Capellan terrorist attack on a Davion world (Demeter I believe) that used a nuclear device to annihilate a Mech factory but this seems to be the exception and not the rule. Stockpiles of weapons from the Age of War and even the Reunification War would be over one hundred and fifty years old. Most likely these were decommissioned rather than cached while "conventional" tactics seemed to rule the day. Enter House Amaris. Perhaps back as far as Tadeo could have begun their own nuclear weapon stockpile as a trump card to use in case of Star League attack. Certainly it seems as though Amaris used them as a shortcut to conquer the Hegemony as rapidly as possible in late 2766 as part of his Coup. If that wasn't enough Kerensky's War seems to bought home their "practical" use on a tactical level for defense (annihilating large groups of would be liberators) or attack (softening up Castle Brians and other hardened defenses that the Republicans held). Monkey see, monkey do. As the Hegemony is liberated the Houses are no doubt taking notes and see what these potent tools could do in their hands if deployed on a wide scale. Would this not lead to an Nuclear Arms Race among the Great Houses as they rushed to develop their own WMD? Perhaps this would explain much of their pre-war preparation, each Lord rushing to add to his arsenal with varying degrees of success. In any event I just don't see the Houses having these things lying around and when the war comes simply wiping the dust of old perhaps no unreliable weapons. Could be wrong though, technology continues onward and perhaps these concerns are unwarranted. Like to your thoughts!

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Re: Nuclear Stockpile
Â« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2008, 07:55:51 AM Â» Quote

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I tend to come at these things as an author of a (I hope.)good yarn, thus WMD become plot device as in the Tiger story. I think the Great Houses probably do have some stockpiles ie the devastation on Helm in the Grey Death Trilogy. But these weapons are generally lousy at anything else other than ruining the other guys stuff.
As a matter of taste I would have the Houses actually having relatively small stockpiles. A side note these weapons are expensive to boot, it boils down to this: What would you rather have; A nuke that renders the blast radius useless to you for 25,000 years or a BattleMech that doesn't.
Keep it vague.
CBT is about heroic acts and people in crisis, WMD's dehumanize this, It's the same thinking that kept me away from the WarShips, too large a scale.
More philosophical than realistic but thats my two pence.

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Re: Nuclear Stockpile
Â« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2008, 12:31:55 PM Â» Quote

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I am sure that the Successor States have some nukes and other massive destruction weapons available (if only for nuking fleets) but I think this would be a last resort weapon: either because the situation is desperate (ie Skye) or because they feel that their opponent loses would be high (for example nuking a major factory complex you cannot occupy).

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Re: Nuclear Stockpile
Â« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2008, 08:50:58 PM Â» Quote

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There is a 'theoretical' model of a nuclear warhead that does not rely upon fissionable materials to ignite the fusion explosion. In theory it would work, but none have ever been successfully built (that we know of). This type of weapon would use high-intensity lasers to flash-heat either liquid or 'slushy' deuterium or tritium, while using conventional explosives to implode the H2 or H3 core to increase compression pressure. Pressure, after all, equals heat, as Teller learned in his work on the hydrogen bomb.

A weapon of THIS type would not require fissionables with a half-life decay for ignition (though if tritium [H3] was used, it would require fairly frequent replacement as that would itself decay). Just a thought. Now, if such a thing can even work, who knows?

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Rainbow 6 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 26, 2009, 04:32:03 PM »

A news article on the age of the US nuclear arsenal got me thinking about the arms race that probably lead up to the (1st) Succession War. Thought I'd try and type this up, get some input. Now entering the Periphery Uprising I'm gonna assume that the Houses didn't have a massive stockpile of such weapons at least not the numbers used in the conflict. Granted there is an incident like the Capellan terrorist attack on a Davion world (Demeter I believe) that used a nuclear device to annihilate a Mech factory but this seems to be the exception and not the rule. Stockpiles of weapons from the Age of War and even the Reunification War would be over one hundred and fifty years old. Most likely these were decommissioned rather than cached while "conventional" tactics seemed to rule the day. Enter House Amaris. Perhaps back as far as Tadeo could have begun their own nuclear weapon stockpile as a trump card to use in case of Star League attack. Certainly it seems as though Amaris used them as a shortcut to conquer the Hegemony as rapidly as possible in late 2766 as part of his Coup. If that wasn't enough Kerensky's War seems to bought home their "practical" use on a tactical level for defense (annihilating large groups of would be liberators) or attack (softening up Castle Brians and other hardened defenses that the Republicans held). Monkey see, monkey do. As the Hegemony is liberated the Houses are no doubt taking notes and see what these potent tools could do in their hands if deployed on a wide scale. Would this not lead to an Nuclear Arms Race among the Great Houses as they rushed to develop their own WMD? Perhaps this would explain much of their pre-war preparation, each Lord rushing to add to his arsenal with varying degrees of success. In any event I just don't see the Houses having these things lying around and when the war comes simply wiping the dust of old perhaps no unreliable weapons. Could be wrong though, technology continues onward and perhaps these concerns are unwarranted. Like to your thoughts!

Rainbow 6 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 26, 2009, 04:32:19 PM »

I tend to come at these things as an author of a (I hope.)good yarn, thus WMD become plot device as in the Tiger story. I think the Great Houses probably do have some stockpiles ie the devastation on Helm in the Grey Death Trilogy. But these weapons are generally lousy at anything else other than ruining the other guys stuff.
As a matter of taste I would have the Houses actually having relatively small stockpiles. A side note these weapons are expensive to boot, it boils down to this: What would you rather have; A nuke that renders the blast radius useless to you for 25,000 years or a BattleMech that doesn't.
Keep it vague.
CBT is about heroic acts and people in crisis, WMD's dehumanize this, It's the same thinking that kept me away from the WarShips, too large a scale.
More philosophical than realistic but thats my two pence.

Rainbow 6 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 26, 2009, 04:32:38 PM »

I am sure that the Successor States have some nukes and other massive destruction weapons available (if only for nuking fleets) but I think this would be a last resort weapon: either because the situation is desperate (ie Skye) or because they feel that their opponent loses would be high (for example nuking a major factory complex you cannot occupy).

Rainbow 6 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 26, 2009, 04:32:56 PM »

There is a 'theoretical' model of a nuclear warhead that does not rely upon fissionable materials to ignite the fusion explosion. In theory it would work, but none have ever been successfully built (that we know of). This type of weapon would use high-intensity lasers to flash-heat either liquid or 'slushy' deuterium or tritium, while using conventional explosives to implode the H2 or H3 core to increase compression pressure. Pressure, after all, equals heat, as Teller learned in his work on the hydrogen bomb.

A weapon of THIS type would not require fissionables with a half-life decay for ignition (though if tritium [H3] was used, it would require fairly frequent replacement as that would itself decay). Just a thought. Now, if such a thing can even work, who knows?

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