The purpose of Poseidon is to have a different way of delivering a nuclear weapon to the US... if they launch it in southern ocean waters that means US sea defences have to be created and built up around all of US territory and US bases in other countries... they are prepared to spend trillions on ballistic missile defence are they prepared to spend a lot more protecting their shores... they want to feel safe... and the purpose of Poseidon and other weapons is that they never feel safe... that is the basis of MAD, which has worked fine for so long but the US is destabilising it with ABM sites around the place...
BTW operating at more than 1,000m of water means it will be the fastest thing there.... deep diving subs move at between 3 and 7 knts... this will be going at 60-70knts...
BTW good post Teshub... I would add to that.... many ports are dredged and relatively deep so an enormous volume of water is going to be turned into super heated salt water... that is very radioactive.... the water will absorb a lot of the energy of the explosion so you really could not compare it with an air or even a surface burst.... but depending on which way the wind blows we are talking about terrible fall out potential downwind... and as mentioned you could sail up the Mississippi as well so your options for fallout are increased...
With a normal port an underwater 2MT explosion would basically vapourise all the sea water and a lot of mud and debris would be superheated... I don't think there would be a huge mushroom cloud.... that is normally created by superheated air rising so superheated salt water would not rise as far or as fast so a low flat cloud of superheated radioactive salt water and mud.... if it blows inland it will not be good for living things...
So it does have a role. Whether or not it is worth the investment to manufacture and deploy is another question.
They could make lots of them and in peacetime use some to map the seabed as an UUV... being nuclear powered they could send them all over the place...
They could even be used to monitor sea currents... once they have detailed maps of sea currents they could use that to use in their mission to destroy food stocks near the US and her allies...
Hell they could get into Greenpeaces' good books and escort whales... those feckin Japs and Norwegians had better watch what they are harpooning in the south seas... something might turn and bite them back...
They will only have to make other countries pay double for the f-35, and everyone here know they will pay, and get back those billions lost in the programs you are talking.
You make it sound like the US is good at business... they are not.... when everyone trades in US dollars it creates an international demand for US dollars... as more and more countries drop the dollar the worse it will be for the US because without being the international currency they are fucked. They will have to work for the money... and they aren't used to working that hard.
(Ironically the people that work the hardest often do it in 2-3 jobs, but for minimum wage...)
Trying to hit US with economy is useless. They are too good at that.
Even if it wasn't useless... the US is using sanctions against Russia to stop it from developing and progressing, so at the very least it should do everything it can to return the favour.
But at the end of the day this is not a commercial thing.... it is a deterrence thing... the idea is to make war unappealing.... which is no small thing when you are talking about a war economy like America... they thrive on wars.
The purpose is not to make them poor, but to make war with Russia not an appealing or even sensible option... MAD... mutually assured destruction...
Only way this makes sense with 2Mt is if rest of the payload is nothing but cobalt that would be used to salt the warhead
Giant dirty bomb
Otherwise waste of time and money
Not a waste of time and money... as I mentioned these could be the basis of very deep diving long range UUVs that could map and explore the sea bed... there is no reason for a UUV to move at 60-70 knots, so heavy payloads could be attached and it would still be useful... it could take samples at different depths continuously for weeks... never getting tired or bored... just set it a grid pattern to operate in at 1km deep or more...hell you could use it for all sorts of things...
You could use to to look for oil in the water, or scan the bottom with sonar or radar... a nuke propulsion means plenty of electricity available...
2MT would destroy most of New York City.
Not an underwater burst... water would absorb a lot of the energy... still would not be nice though...
And still the best economy in the world. They don't care about debt. Debt is part of their lives.
Debt has become part of their lives and the only ones who get debt relief are the richest banks that are too big to fail... how about that for irony...
Poseidon on its own is not the solution but added to other pieces it becomes a web that ensures Russia will damage the US to an unacceptable level if the US wants to start something.
Sounds like value for money to me.
Once there will be option to change to say Renminbi world it could be interesting to see how much of this remains...
When that happens then the US wont have so much money available to it... just like everyone else and will have to make serious cuts in spending.... which is going to be tremendously painful... will the MIC accept not having cash thrown at them... is a coup possible... would it even be likely... the MIC seems to be in bed with the US media, so they have the tools to manipulate the population... they certainly love to get them excited about new cruise missile attacks and invasions....
The funny thing is Tramp seems to speed up US erosion. His hysterical economical war on the world opens eyes more countries . And Us is perhaps stronger then any of alone state but not groups thereof.
Indeed Trumps bullyboy tactics might work in the boardroom of his own company, but I don't think even North Korea or Iran are impressed let alone the EU...
how do you know its more expensive then ICBM? it is enough to kill Diego Garcia or Hawaii not to mention any of CSGs... as stand off weapon. Forcing enemy to spend billions on defense.
Indeed, ASW systems are bloody expensive.... and having to set them up in the south pacific and south atlantic would be expensive enough but also having to patrol down there too is going to push them past the trillion dollar a year defence budget... of course new US navy access bases down there will become necessary too... I doubt they will consider Africa, so south America and perhaps New Zealand or Australia... they already have a US base at Christchurch airport to support their operations in Antarctica... perhaps they might want to rent some space in the port at Invercargill or Dunedin or Christchurch.... of course we have a no nuke policy so that rules out all their subs and most of their ships from operating here anyway... Aussie?