A closer look at the nuclear stockpiles as the Cuban Crisis began

[TheKiwi]

From recollection there were at the time only a few Hotel and Golf class missile subs. And they each carried 3 missles, that were roughly equivelent to a Scud - range of about 150 miles. They had to surface to fire and it took 10 - 12 minutes to fire all three missles.

[Mordoror]

The United States had 203 missiles of this type, with a combined nuclear yield greater than 635 megatons, the equivalent of 635,000,000 tons of TNT. By way of comparison, the "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II -- resulting in between 90,000 and 166,000 deaths -- had a yield of around 15,000 tons of TNT.

The Soviet Union had only 36 missiles capable of covering a similar distance, with a combined yield in the range of 108-204 megatons. Although much lower than the long-range missiles held by the Americans, these weapons still represented a nuclear power between 7,560 to 14,280 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

What the article doesn't take in account is the efficiency of the technology in 1962. I have read some article and discussed with some former engineers. At that time it is estimated that around 20 to 25 % of the missiles would have gone dud/would have experienced a misfire

What about the nuclear missiles carried by Russian submarines? Article doesn't say a word about that.

Indeed

The way i see the things : most of the inland big soviet cities would have been turned into glassy rubbles as well as most of the east-west coastal US cities (the hearth of politial and economical strenght of USA). I am not even talking about Europe
203 missiles is enough to target between 30 and 50 cities (due to the misfire/dud probabilities each city was always targeted by between 4 to 8 missiles as there were not MIRV back in those days)
36 missiles is enough to target 10 to 12 cities (Soviets were using bigger warheads to compensate their lack of missiles too)
And that without the sub launched warheads and bombers
In both case the very core of each state would have been annihilated and only cities of less than 40 000 inhabitants would have been sustainable
In both cases as SU and USA were pretty rural, a significant amount of population would have survived the first hits but not the follow up of radiation sickness, crop contamination, diseases due to destroyed health system and millions of decaying bodies, lack of food/clean water and social disorders
As for Europe, the effect would have been more immediate as the european population was more dense

[JCR]

The losers in this war would probably have been a lot better off than the winners.
Especially since 1960s nukes were dirty and created lots of Fallout.

[Bruisercruiser]

Me too. I'm glad we (as in the human race) had leaders back then who wouldn't reflexively pull the trigger. My mom and dad were both 15 years old during the Cuban missile crisis. They were years from meeting each other, and if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here, nor would my amazing little daughter.



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Very well put my friend. Life does change when you have children of your own. A lot of our members who are twenty-something keyboard warriors are in for a rude awakening.

[T-5 Killer]

I suggest reading a book called "When Angels Wept" by Eric Swedin. It's a "what if" the Cuban Crisis went hot scenario. Interesting read.

Sounds interesting.

[C.Puffs]

1962: You wouldn't have wanted to have been on the eastern sea board of the US that is for sure. The Cuban based missiles could hit pretty much anywhere along there. Likewise much of Europe is a free fire zone and glows in the dark. You could be looking at as many as a billion deaths. Scary stuff.

Were the missiles in Cuba ever actually operational? Keep in mind there were a LOT of nuclear armed aircraft just waiting for the word to turn Cuba into a parking lot, and were literally minutes away.

[TheKiwi]

Yeah, apparently they were.

[ljrmisty]

Me too. I'm glad we (as in the human race) had leaders back then who wouldn't reflexively pull the trigger. My mom and dad were both 15 years old during the Cuban missile crisis. They were years from meeting each other, and if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here, nor would my amazing little daughter.



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Thanks for the perspective. And the cutie. I was 7 at the time. Grandparents and Uncles who served in WWII, (one lost over Germany), a Dad who was to serve in Korea, (but didn't), and my older brother and me scared beyond belief. I distinctly remember our President NOT pulling the trigger, and his basically staring down the Khrushchev/Cuba/Soviet threat. The potential realities of that time are still vivid in my mind and my heart.

[ljrmisty]

Sorry, I was 7 when Ike gave his Military/Industrial Complex speech. 9 when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. Old. I know