GarryB wrote:Here are a couple of links Garry.
With a neutron bomb the radiation is increased, but not as much as you might think... the explosion is dramatically reduced however.
I remember an infographic from the 1980s where they showed the radiation levels from different tactical nuclear devices and they had vehicles on the ground in the form of a big long column of tanks and APCs stretching several kms long. In the first image a 1KT bomb goes off and you see the radiation damage probably does as much killing as the blast. In the next image a 10KT bomb has a bigger blast radius but the radiation is only slightly bigger. In the next image a 100KT bomb has only a slightly bigger radiation radius than the much smaller bomb... it is not ten times bigger as you might think, but then the explosive blast might be ten times bigger but it doesn't have a blast radius ten times bigger. A 5KT neutron bomb had the radiation radius of a 1MT bomb and less explosion and blast than the 1KT bomb and to increase its effect it can be set off up in the air where the blast probably wont even break windows but the radiation kills over a greater area again....
That is why they were banned because it was believed by both sides that they would be too tempting to use to exterminate the other side.
My point was that because they do not render the enemy's cities uninhabitable they are less useful in an all out nuclear war.
Though they would be very useful in eastern europe, just fire them from smerch batteries at ukraine and the baltics so that you have a very easy time re-assimilating you lost land.