Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday September 02 2020, @08:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the working-so-well-for-North-Korea? dept.

China working to double nuclear warheads:

China is expected to at least double the number of its nuclear warheads over the next 10 years - from an estimated figure in the low 200s it has now - and is nearing the ability to launch nuclear attacks by land, air and sea, a capacity known as a triad, the Pentagon has revealed.

The annual report to Congress on China's military marks the first time it has put a number to China's nuclear warheads. The Federation of American Scientists has estimated that China has about 320.

The Pentagon said the growth projection was based on factors including Beijing having enough material to double its nuclear weapons stockpile without new fissile material production.

Begun, the Second Nuclear Arms Race has?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Wednesday September 02 2020, @08:42PM (6 children)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday September 02 2020, @08:42PM (#1045577)

    My understanding is it's a bitch to sink a carrier. I seem to recall the Navy tried to sink one of their own a few years back and had a hell of a time.

    So a small nuke at the tip of a sea skimming missile would be ideal. Vaporize half the ship, the other half sinks, and Hey! Bet there's some collateral damage with that carrier's escorts.

    Disclaimer. Never been in the Navy. Never built a nuke. Never really looked into what it takes to make a nuke. Have no idea the minimum weight for a nuke (although I've read suitcase bombs need to be at least 70 lbs).

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2020, @09:04PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2020, @09:04PM (#1045593)

    midway [wikipedia.org] didn't happen?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 02 2020, @09:31PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday September 02 2020, @09:31PM (#1045610)

      No, but carrier design has changed quite a bit since 1942.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by driverless on Thursday September 03 2020, @03:10AM (2 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Thursday September 03 2020, @03:10AM (#1045703)

    They don't need to sink carriers, they just need to convince the US to stay waaaaay ahead in a spending-money race:

    The annual report comes as the US Congress debates the pending $700bn defence authorisation bill [...] the bill amounts to three times China's annual defence budget.

    So you've got a country that's currently tearing itself apart, the economy cratering, and China convinces it to spend even more money it can't afford on toys for the generals. We know this is a very effective strategy because it's exactly what the US did in the 1980s to destroy the USSR.

    • (Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Thursday September 03 2020, @07:45AM

      by pvanhoof (4638) on Thursday September 03 2020, @07:45AM (#1045766) Homepage

      Right, and that you do by having the capability to do things like sinking air craft carriers. It's a very cheap way to scare to shit out of generals (and admirals).

    • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday September 03 2020, @12:34PM

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Thursday September 03 2020, @12:34PM (#1045826)

      It was also effective against Great Britain in the early 20th (though the antagonists in that case were Germany and Russia).

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by evilcam on Friday September 04 2020, @01:41AM

    by evilcam (3239) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 04 2020, @01:41AM (#1046157)

    My understanding is it's a bitch to sink a carrier.

    Sorta...

    There's a great story about an Australian Collins Class sub [wikipedia.org] that managed to sink a US Carrier during some war games (albeit quite a few years back).
    Video doco-thing about it is on Youtube here [youtube.com]...

    My favourite part of the story is apparently they played Men At Work's over the Gertrude (sea telephone) to announce the kill... The thought of a sonar operator on the carrier intently listening and starting at a screen on high alert then suddenly hearing that riff come through their headphones fills me with joy... [youtube.com]