• queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    73
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    7 months ago

    Already have more nukes than every other country, this is literally pointless. After a certain point having more nukes just becomes a hat on a hat.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Oh there is a point. Hint: Who does the US Government pay to maintain/create it’s nuclear arsenal?

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        Private contractors probably, it’s all a big bonanza for a few rich people to get richer I’m sure. Just paying for more hats on hats.

        But never underestimate how dog brained these people are, they probably actually believe this makes us more secure lol

    • Crackhappy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      Have you ever played TF2? Because a hat on a hat makes sense, from a certain point of view.

    • eran_morad@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      7 months ago

      It’s probably just a dick waving thing that’s meant to stress the blyats and get them to spend money on useless shit.

    • pingveno@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      7 months ago

      Russia has more nukes. It also has weaker conventional armed forces and a history of nuclear sabor rattling, hence the US and its allies being nervous about a degraded MAD system.

        • pingveno@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          7
          ·
          7 months ago

          With MAD, the idea is to be in the position that any adversary knows that if they attack you, they will be utterly annihilated. There should be no scenario under which an adversary sees a nuclear attack as advantageous. The US has aging systems and both China and Russia have been developing new capabilities. Numbers alone may not keep up, especially if a large number of missiles are disabled via nukes or other means.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            7 months ago

            5000 nukes will annihilate everyone. Earth wouldn’t recover for centuries.

            Now, yes, delivery systems determine if the nukes can actually be used, but having more than 5000 nukes is just a hat on a hat. As long as they’re 5000 functional nukes there’s just no reason to have more.

            • Cypher@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              Unless the enemy can intercept the missiles, then you need more to guarantee first strike capability.

              If you need 500 nukes to hit and the enemy can destroy 90% of missiles then you build 5000+

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                7 months ago

                Again, that’s more about delivery systems than just having more nukes. The capacity to intercept comes down to how fast and stealthy the missiles are.

            • pingveno@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              7 months ago

              Again, it’s not a matter of numbers. It’s a matter of maintaining a credible MAD threat so that any adversaries does not see nuclear war as a viable option. Nuclear weapons are meant to be brandished credibly as a response, not used.

            • pingveno@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              Well, there are other parts to MAD. Things like keeping mil to mil communication open at all times, especially times of increased hostility, to avoid escalations. But in the end, it is insuring that the nuclear game is set such that it is never in anyone’s best interest to set off nuclear weapons.

  • arxdat@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    34
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    7 months ago

    “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas” Let’s build more world ending bombs! That’ll show 'em.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      31
      ·
      7 months ago

      Tell Russia to stop issuing nuclear threats, we just got another one from Putin in the last 24 hours. It’s easy to dial back tensions when you aren’t being threatened with annihilation on a daily and weekly basis.

        • Pifpafpouf@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          18
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          7 months ago

          A single nuclear warhead is not capable of ending life as we know it, where did you read that ?

          • r00ty@kbin.life
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            7 months ago

            Yeah. The 7.5 times (or is it 9.5 times, I forget) thing that has been thrown around since the cold war days never rings true to me.

            The primary and secondary strikes for both sides will take out people living close to either a military installation or a major city.

            Also there’s no way even a world war would involve every single country and every single island. There’s no way human life would be entirely obliterated. Most us posting here, perhaps. Certainly I’d likely be taken out in the second or third wave (close to London and also close to a military base). But life would go on.

        • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          14
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          Many of those are due for retirement purely due to age. There isn’t a replacement system for many of them. Furthermore, countermeasures have gotten better; future designs will better take these into account.

          • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            9
            ·
            edit-2
            7 months ago

            Truth on lemmy gets downvoted. It’s really that simple. Most of our Nukes are the same age as our grandparents at this point. Our ICBMs are running on 5.25" floppy disks from the 70s. All this shit is OLD and desperately needs modernization for safety and security.

            But if the headline was 'USA to replace ICE nukes with EV nukes" it would be upvoted and celebrated.

      • Danterious@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        Happy cakeday. And yeah deescalation requires both parties to open to de-arm not only one of them.

        Honestly though the best case scenario of how this all ends doesn’t really look great to me.

        Either Russia loses the war, the government destabilizes, a power vacuum is formed which causes a power shift in a way likely to lead to more aggressive action in the future.

        Or Russia wins the war, eyes other countries after it settles into Ukraine, NATO/US need to respond or else it sends the wrong message to other countries allied with them, and we head for WW3

        Edit: There is also the idea of a stalemate and this just becomes a continuous war that doesn’t really end, but honestly I can’t see that being stable long term.

        Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

      • carl_marks[use name]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        15
        ·
        7 months ago

        NATO expansion after the dissolution of the UDSSR (against what threat?) Is the first aggression… Also, even though Medvedev like to bark a lot, Russia has a clear nuclear doctrine.

      • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        20
        ·
        7 months ago

        The US has no business in that conflict, we literally only make things worse. Putin and Ukraine have zero to do with our lives, and the idea that we need to be in a war with russia is just silly propaganda.

    • bquintb@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      7 months ago

      We are still in a cold war, only now it’s more complicated because more countries have nukes…including North Korea which is kind of a wildcard.

      Check out Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen. It’s a well-researched and horrifying scenario where deterrence fails because N Korea launches on the US. it takes you step-by-step through the decision process our government would take in response. Its gripping and pretty damn terrifying and shows just how delicate the whole situation is.

      • str82L @lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        7 months ago

        If this topic is your bag, I’m guessing you’ve also read Jeffrey Lewis’s book on the topic: https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/books/

        A great read, if very slightly outdated. Could still represent a possible future if Trump returns to power, or perhaps even if he doesn’t. Either way, Arms Control Wonk podcast is an entertaining and informative listen for anyone remotely interested in this topic.

  • Daxtron2@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    7 months ago

    Does anyone else have dreams about nuclear war on a regular basis? Cause I do, and I don’t particularly care for it.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      7 months ago

      What the fuck is a GRAVITY BOMB

      Simply means it is a free-fall bomb. They are cheaper to make as they don’t require an entire ICBM to deliver.

    • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      Just a bomb that is dropped from storage to fall in free-fall. Aka, a bomb with literally nothing else, the simplest possible bomb. An alternative name (which is better imo) is a “Dumb Bomb”.

      Gravity bomb just sounds so much more extraordinary than it actually is.

  • Majestic@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    7 months ago

    China: has like 300 nuclear weapons, none of them stationed outside their country. Has no forward military bases from which to stage or launch attacks, has limited forward radar visibility of incoming attacks. Has a couple SSBM subs which likely operate entirely in the south China sea from which it can launch. Wants to expand to 1000 by 2030.

    Russia: Has over 4000 warheads, most aging. Has no meaningful forward military bases outside their country for staging attacks on the west. Has no meaningful forward radar visibility of incoming attacks from beyond its borders. Has a few SSBM subs from which it can launch.

    US: Has over 4000 warheads, many aging. Has many hidden, classified, constantly operating SSBM submarines which regularly intentionally cruise to the north Atlantic (near Russia), the south Pacific (near China), and a variety of other locations. Has ground-launched missiles, an air delivery system. Has world class sonar (included super-sensitive listening stations bolted to the bedrock of the east and west coasts) and aggressive drone campaigns to hunt and constantly track Chinese and Russian missile subs to allow them a first kill. Has forward warning radar systems positioned thousands of miles from its borders in northern Canada, in Europe, in the Pacific on island chains. In addition has a massive, the most massive spy satellite network in operation constantly watching other powers in incredible detail. Has a space force dedicated to among other things sabotaging Chinese and Russian space assets with kill switches or remote disable explosives which could be used in aggression to blind their enemy first. Of all major world powers will have the most warning and most time to react decisively in case of a full scale launch and attempted sneak first strike on them by either Russia or China. Stations nuclear weapons with allies in “sharing” agreements where the US has final say on their use and launch in countries from the UK to mainland Europe near Russia to Turkey, is considering such an agreement with South Korea right on China’s border.

    But tell me again how the US is backed into a corner in this situation and has no choice but to build more warheads and pour hundreds of billions that could feed, cloth, shelter, and provide healthcare to its people into new delivery systems which will fatten and enrich defense contractors to the tune of hundreds of billions of overage costs if not trillions for systems that may or may not even work thanks to contractor greed and sloppiness.

    • Crikeste@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Someone REALLY needs to put America in its place. I’m sick of this ‘we rule the entire world, and there’s nothing you can do about it’ attitude we have here. It’s disgusting.

      Also: Trump pulls out of our nuclear agreement with Russia, and this is how Biden’s government responds? Escalation? They seems to have similar ideals.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    7 months ago

    Shroedinger’s Russian nuclear arsenal. When there’s a story about risking escalation, libs tell me it’s fine because Russia doesn’t have the money to maintain its nukes, so it’d only be a “limited” nuclear exchange. When this story comes out, the libs tell me that Russia has a much larger and better maintained nuclear stockpile, so it’s only necessary for the US to spend more on it to catch up. It’s sort of the same way that Russia simultaneously is on the verge of defeat, yet also has the intention and capability to conquer all of Europe, like Hitler, if we don’t stop him here.

    The enemy is both strong and weak, and you never know which one it’s gonna be.

    • Hugin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      7 months ago

      The thing is countries can change. Russia was ill equipped to fight a war against a prepared equipped country. Supplies were missing because people sold off supplies they thought were never gong to be needed. Now they know they need that equipment and the countries economy is on a war footing.

      Look at how much a difference being prepared made for Ukraine the recent invasion compared to the earlier invasion of Crimea.

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        I’m not talking about changes over time, talking about things I’ve seen recently on here regarding Russia’s current status, in response to news stories and comments discussing the danger of escalation going nuclear.

  • doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    7 months ago

    Biden is doing everything in his power to eliminate the argument that trump is worse/less responsible/more bellicose.

    As a trans person, I still hope genocide joe wins for my own personal safety. but I’m also aware that safety provided by dems is tenuous at best. Especially if we decide to fry the planet over Taiwan and Crimea.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      7 months ago

      As a fellow trans person, I don’t think Biden can guarantee my safety because I’m in a red state. He seems to be allowing red state anti-trans legislation without much pushback. At best he might not make the problem even worse, but he won’t protect us.

    • LeadersAtWork@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      7 months ago

      If you want Joe to win, I’d probably stop using that label for awhile. Make it easier to, y’know, do that thing.

        • LeadersAtWork@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          Just saying, it may be wise to engage in acts of patience given the risk of the current climate. Hold him accountable after we get over the current hurdle. Like, keep it in your back pocket. We should hold advantages where we can and come together. That’s all. A sorta strategic focus to eliminate issues one at a time without dividing energy or people. Because I think the larger opinion is the same, we just differ on what to focus on first.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The comments on Friday from Pranay Vaddi, a senior director of the National Security Council, were the most explicit public warning yet that the United States was prepared to shift from simply modernizing its arsenal to expanding it.

    Mr. Vaddi, speaking at the annual meeting of the Arms Control Association, a group that advocates limits on nuclear weapons, confirmed what officials have been saying in private conversations and closed congressional testimony for more than a year.

    Fifteen years ago, President Barack Obama outlined a vision of moving toward a world without nuclear weapons, and he took steps to reduce their role in American strategy and defenses.

    While the nation’s nuclear complexes were improved and made safer, and old weapons were swapped out for more reliable or updated versions, the United States insisted it was only “modernizing” its arsenal, not expanding it.

    “Absent a change in the trajectory of the adversary arsenal, we may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required, and we need to be fully prepared to execute if the president makes that decision,” he said.

    The failure of Russia and China to engage in meaningful negotiations, Mr. Vaddi said, was “forcing the United States and our close allies and partners to prepare for a world where nuclear competition occurs without numerical constraints.”


    The original article contains 969 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!