What H said was correct, we have NEVER had a large enough combined arsenal to "destroy the earth", EVER. 

 

Why bother debating with someone with no knowledge, and in response to your first question, read around this site a bit and make up your own mind.

 

R

im so sorry

1. im sorry i had the luck to be born in a country that has enjoyed unrivaled hegemony  for the last fifty+ years and that this has inspired in me a complete conviction of the superiority of our military and culture.

2. im sorry that me my parents and grandparents never had to survive the winter months on salted meats or vegetables because of an utterly reliable system of commerce and governance.

3. im sorry i have no plans to serve in any military capacity because A) a all volunteer army means i dont have too and B) i sleep pretty well at night with the defence thats been provided for me.

4. im sorry the chinese are still communists and and your not

5. im sorry about stealing most of your great thinkers early in the last century, but that mustache dude was weird scary

6. im sorry you guys got cable after the wall came down and saw all the nice things out here

7. im sorry reagan figured out you were always broke and out spent you so well

8. im sorry that your new blooming productive society was crushed by a greedy KGB colonel

9. im sorry we left vietnam unfined so every wonk could say we werent unstopplable, because just between you and me, we were

10.. im sorry its all so painfully obvious that the M1 platform will outperform anything you can put up through 2040 because it is a tank killer and not a tool for suppresing the populace in despotic regimes and poor client states or at home

im sorry

 

im so sorry

1. im sorry i had the luck to be born in a country that has enjoyed unrivaled hegemony  for the last fifty+ years and that this has inspired in me a complete conviction of the superiority of our military and culture.

2. im sorry that me my parents and grandparents never had to survive the winter months on salted meats or vegetables because of an utterly reliable system of commerce and governance.

3. im sorry i have no plans to serve in any military capacity because A) a all volunteer army means i dont have too and B) i sleep pretty well at night with the defence thats been provided for me.

4. im sorry the chinese are still communists and and your not

5. im sorry about stealing most of your great thinkers early in the last century, but that mustache dude was weird scary

6. im sorry you guys got cable after the wall came down and saw all the nice things out here

7. im sorry reagan figured out you were always broke and out spent you so well

8. im sorry that your new blooming productive society was crushed by a greedy KGB colonel

9. im sorry we left vietnam unfined so every wonk could say we werent unstopplable, because just between you and me, we were

10.. im sorry its all so painfully obvious that the M1 platform will outperform anything you can put up through 2040 because it is a tank killer and not a tool for suppresing the populace in despotic regimes and poor client states or at home

im sorry

 

im so sorry

1. im sorry i had the luck to be born in a country that has enjoyed unrivaled hegemony  for the last fifty+ years and that this has inspired in me a complete conviction of the superiority of our military and culture.

2. im sorry that me my parents and grandparents never had to survive the winter months on salted meats or vegetables because of an utterly reliable system of commerce and governance.

3. im sorry i have no plans to serve in any military capacity because A) a all volunteer army means i dont have too and B) i sleep pretty well at night with the defence thats been provided for me.

4. im sorry the chinese are still communists and and your not

5. im sorry about stealing most of your great thinkers early in the last century, but that mustache dude was weird scary

6. im sorry you guys got cable after the wall came down and saw all the nice things out here

7. im sorry reagan figured out you were always broke and out spent you so well

8. im sorry that your new blooming productive society was crushed by a greedy KGB colonel

9. im sorry we left vietnam unfined so every wonk could say we werent unstopplable, because just between you and me, we were

10.. im sorry its all so painfully obvious that the M1 platform will outperform anything you can put up through 2040 because it is a tank killer and not a tool for suppresing the populace in despotic regimes and poor client states or at home

im sorry

 

i forgot im also sorry that the first two thirds of this thread were such a robust and interesting debate of the merits of two main battle tanks and have now devolved into a couple of depressed warsaw pact apologists screaming at clearly better qualified and knowledgeable western armor enthuthiasts

sorry

Shut up, you have just demonstrated plainly enough your complete ignorance of WMD and delivery systems, just as you have done in general with your nationalistic bullshit to date.

I'm a little bored at the moment

 

Depending on yields and numbers of warheads that will work (Russian bombs have a significant failure rate, PRC bombs unfortunately work) the current yield of the world's effective combined arsenals is around  1.2552e+19 Joules-> 2.092e+19 joules.on average. That is 1.2 to  2.0 joules followed by 19 ZEROS.or three thousand to five thousand megatons.

 

Hurricane Katrina was a 1.58992e+18 joule event. That means ten Katrinas exceeds the total explosive potential we actually have.   

 

WW II was about a 1.6736e+16 joule event. Refer to Hurricane Katrina which packed almost 100 times as much energy..

   

The recent Christchurch Event was equivalent to about 1/100th of a Katrina or almost equal to WW II, so that shows just how horribly efficient earthquakes are at destroying structures and causing rock-slides. Oddly enough the Greensberg, Kansas tornado was almost exactly equivalent. or about four megatons. Go figure out what THAT means. Greensberg rebuilt within four years after some 20 dead and 95% destroyed out of a town of 1300.     

 

What will an iron ball about 100,000 meters across, that slams into the Earth at 50,000 m/s do? Its 5.24e +27  joules or about  1.25e+12 megatons TNT. Will that destroy the Earth? Nope. Depending on the strike angle, it will leave a crater in the Earth's surface about  2200 kilometers across. THAT should kill everything on our planet, but still leave the Earth intact for the process of common descent to start over.

 

If you want a Chicxilub event I expect a 10,000 meter across ball of iron at 17,000 m/s will produce a 90+ kilometer crater and about 6.0e+23 Joules or just barely enough to wipe Humanity out.   

 

I just thought a little math and physics would perk me up this morning. (SARCASM.). 

 

Herald

 

I disagree EW did NOT lead to US losses in Vietnam...at least from what I've read....the APR-87/101 and the Phase IV and Phase V ECM fit on the B-52's REDUCED losses...

 

Read Price's War in the Fourth Dimension and get back to me...he might be wrong, but it is his contention that it was a LACK of EW awareness and equipment that hurt the US, initially, not later EW.

 

The four plane Pod Flight and the 3 plane B-52 "Cell" were very safe from Radar-Guided AAA and SA-2's. according to all I've read...The losses in Linebacker II came from the B-52G's not having the best ECM gear, from the decision to require A/c to IMMEDIATELY BANK upon bomb release (nuclear SOP carried over by SAC onto a tactical situation) which blanked the ECM gear of the B-52's, the requirement to move onto the IP and turn for ALL B-52's and the requirement to bank over the same point at egress, all provided the North Vietnamese with an aim point for their SAM's and Flak...the length of the bomber train and hence time over Vietnam for the train, and orders to not "jink" once at the IP were what contributed to b-52 losses...NOT the ECM.

 

Once the B-52 crews got to run their own profiles, wagon wheel attacks, compressing the bomber stream, no immediate bank upon release, no set turn points onto IP and egress, plus attention to formation and attention to running D-models over Hanoi/Haiphong losses stabilized...again, from what I've read tactics AND ECM played a role, and that proper tactics allowed ECM to do it's job.

 

Is this correct, I don't know, but it's the Conventional Wisdom...and so let's don't throw "Rueben" around and the like, please direct me to the sources that will demonstrate that the DRVN Air Defense Forces were aided by ECM transmissions...because War in the Fourth Dimension and Flying the Black Hole do not support your contention.  Neither does what little reading I've done on the EB-66 or the EA/EKA/ERA-3 Skywarrior.  Now if you have different sources, that's fine I'd be interested in their take, but I'd say, on first blush you're wrong...at 40,000 feet the B-52 is only safe BECAUSE of it's ECM not in spite of its ECM.

I've read him. He's not entirely wrong about bomb release doctrine as a major B-52 problem, but he is mostly wrong about the EW war. The Russians thoroughly beat us at it, I am sad to say. They of course had a lot of treasonous American help to do it, but our hubris also contributed.  Still does. .

 

H.