From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!CAD:teklabs!tekcrd!tekcad!shauns
Newsgroups: net.politics
Title: Re: MX Dense Packing
Article-I.D.: tekcad.289
Posted: Thu Dec  2 21:30:50 1982
Received: Sat Dec  4 09:50:43 1982


The Dense Pack system is 3 miles wide by 14 miles long.  A 60 Megaton bomb would
not be 60 times as damaging as a 1 Megaton bomb - more like 7-8 times as
damaging, mainly because of the fact that the damage footprint
increases with, I think, only the square root of the tonnage. (No flames,
please-I know this is somewhat sloppy)  The surface structure destruction
radius is about a mile for a 1 Megaton bomb, much less for a hardened silo.

A 60 Megaton bomb exploded over the dense pack installation would take out only
10 - 20% of the sites while throwing most of its blast energy into the air.
A salvo of 60 accurately targeted 1 Megaton bombs would cause much more
damage at less risk.  All of your eggs in one basket, you know...

Frankly, I find this whole concept of Dense Pack as a $26 billion bargaining
chip a bit absurd.  Wot da Ruskies is really scared of is da cruise missiles.
The sneaky solution always works in World Politics.
				Shaun Simpkins

uucp:	{ucbvax,decvax,chico,pur-ee,cbosg,ihnss}!teklabs!tekcad!shauns
CSnet:	shauns@tek
ARPAnet:shauns.tek@rand-relay