Russian nukes in space potential use of tactical nuclear weapons he is not bluffing when it comes to his nuclear threats after nuclear fishion was discovered in the late 1930s it didn't take long before the brightest mines created the most powerful weapon known to man it's been nearly 80 years since the first atomic bomb exploded in the Trinity test and since then we have witnessed thousands of nuclear detonations constantly testing improving and accelerating the evolution of nuclear weapons from a cosmic perspective it seems as though we are on a determined path towards our own Extinction the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and August 9th 1945 Mark the only times these weapons of mass destruction were used in war but that doesn't mean we are out of the woods yet in just 8 decades we have gone from not knowing if it was feasible to unleash the power of the atom to possessing the capability to destroy the world many times over for example little boy the bomb dropped over Hiroshima released energy equivalent to 15 kilotons of TNT or the simultaneous explosion of over 30 million pound of TNT while that is a lot of energy certainly enough to destroy a small City it pales in comparison to Modern nuclear weapons the most powerful nuclear weapon in the US Arsenal today is the b83 a thermonuclear nuclear gravity bomb with a maximum yield of 1. 2 megatons of TNT that is 80 times more powerful than little boy imagine 80 little boy atomic bombs detonating at the same time that is just one b83 the United States officially has around 650 b83 among its total of approximately 5,044 nuclear warheads [Music] to put that into perspective the little boy atomic bomb had a maximum Fireball diameter of about 396 M or 1300 ft while the b83 thermonuclear bomb has a maximum Fireball diameter of about 2. 3 km or 1.
4 Mi so in any direction you look in 1. 4 mil the Fireball incinerates everything within it but the largest US nuclear bomb ever tested Castle Bravo yielded an even bigger Fireball diameter of about 8. 3 km or over 5 Mi but to get to an even more bizarre comparison the largest man-made explosion ever on earth the mighty Zar bomber had a yield of a whopping 50 megatons of TNT with a maximum Fireball diameter exceeding 10 K km or 6.
4 Mi reaching the altitude of the plane that dropped it there was an even bigger theoretical version of the Zar bomber that could reach 100 megatons of TNT so why were nuclear weapons of the 1960s much more powerful than those of today you see in the fourth-dimensional chess game of mutual assured destruction bigger is not always better the ability to deliver these weapons accurately to their targets is all Al extremely important after World War II ended it became clear that the former allies the United States and the Soviet Union would plunge the world into a cold war for ideological Supremacy it was feared that an inevitable Cold War could turn red hot the US knew it would not be long before the Soviets developed their own Atomic weapons considering they had Atomic spies in the Manhattan Project the United States had a monopoly on nuclear weapons for 4 years during this time time and afterward they conducted a series of crucial tests to stay ahead of the Soviets see the shock wave coming toward the camera watch those palm trees in the [Music] foreground operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at bikini ATL in mid 1946 these were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity on July 16th 1945 and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th 1945 the purpose of the tests was to investigate the effects of nuclear weapons on warships the crossroads tests were the first of many nuclear tests held in the Marshall Islands and the first to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience including a large press Corp a fleet of 95 Target ships was assembled in bikini Lagoon and hit with two detonations of Fatman plutonium implosion type nuclear weapons of the kind dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 each with a yield of 23 kilotons of TNT operation Sandstone was another and the last of the series of nuclear weapon tests in 1948 conducted by the United States as a monopoly in atomic weapons on August 29th 1949 at 7: a. m. the Soviet Union conducted its first ever nuclear weapon test the rds1 device also known as first lightning was codenamed by the United States as joe1 referencing Joseph Stalin the first Soviet atomic bomb rds1 was an implosion type and almost identical copy of the US Fatman bomb the test surprised Western Powers American intelligence had estimated that the Soviets would not produce an atomic weapon until 1953 while the British did not not expect it until 1954 when the nuclear fision products from the test were detected by the US Air Force the United States began to follow the trail of the nuclear fallout debris President Harry S Truman notified the world of the situation on September 23rd 1949 saying we have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the Soviet Union Truman's statement likely in turn surprised the Soviets who had hoped to keep the test secret to avoid encouraging the Americans to increase their atomic programs and did not know that the United States had built a test detection system the announcement was a turning point in the cold war that had just begun once the Soviet Union was confirmed to be in possession of the atomic bomb the arms race to develop the first Hydrogen Bomb also began that same year in 1949 there was also another significant geopolitical development the North Atlantic Treaty organization or NATO was formed on April 4th 1949 the treaty established a military alliance between 12 North American and Western European countries aiming to provide collective security against the threat posed by the Soviet Union during the early stages of the Cold War the Nevada Test Site is a reservation of the United States Department of energy located about 105 km or 65 m Northwest of the city of Las Vegas the site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992 928 announced nuclear tests occurred there the vast majority of which were underground one of the most popular nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site is the operation upshot knole test series specifically the grael test which stands out because it was the first and only new nuclear artillery shell ever fired it was launched from a 280 mm Cannon known as atomic Annie the test demonstrated the feasibility of nuclear artillery for tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield but the evolution of nuclear weapons entered a whole different level in 1952 Ivy Mike was the code name given to the first fullscale test of a thermonuclear device in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion IV Mike was detonated on November 1st 1952 by the United States and had a yield of 10.
4 megatons of TNT due to its physical size and Fusion fuel type the mic device was not suitable for use as a deliverable weapon it was intended as a technically conservative proof of concept experiment to validate the concepts used for multimegaton detonations while the arms race for the development of hydrogen bombs now added fuel to the Cold War a new layer of of complication was also added that same year up until October 3rd 1952 the United States and the Soviet Union were the only players in town when it came to nuclear weapons but on that date the United Kingdom tested its first nuclear weapon the test code named Operation hurricane was conducted at the Montebello islands off the coast of Western Australia the UK pursued its nuclear weapons program in response to the United States decision to withdraw from nuclear coop operation post World War II only 9 months after the detonation of Ivy Mike the Soviet Union tested its first thermonuclear device detonated on August 12th 1953 the device known as RDS 6 or Joe 4 in the west had a yield of 400 kilotons or about 26 times less powerful than the ivy mik device and was an early type of thermonuclear weapon often referred to as a layered or staged vision fusion bomb on March 1st 1954 the United States conducted The Castle Bravo nuclear test at bikini atle in the Marshall Islands this test marked the first detonation of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb the explosion yielded an unprecedented 15 megatons of TNT significantly higher than the predicted 4 to 6 megatons making it the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States at that time the unexpectedly high yield caused widespread radioactive contamination spreading Fallout over more than 7,000 square mil including inhabited areas this Fallout led to severe health issues and displacement for the local population as well as the crew of a Japanese fishing vessel who were exposed to the radiation The Castle Bravo incident contributed to Growing International concerns about the dangers of nuclear testing which eventually led to the partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 in November 1957 the United Kingdom tested its first true hydrogen bomb known as grapple X the device had a yield of 1. 8 megatons of TNT and exceeded expectations although most of its yield came from nuclear fision rather than nuclear fusion it marked the UK's entry into the thermonuclear Club but the rules of the game changed again that same year when the first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM was conducted by the Soviet Union on August 21st 1957 the missile known as the R7 SEMA had a range of approximately 8,000 km or about 5,000 Mi and was capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to targets across continents this historic test marked a significant milestone in the Cold War as it demonstrated the Soviet Union's capability to strike targets far beyond its borders altering the Strategic balance of power the r7's development also paved the way for advancements in space exploration leading to the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik later that same year as a response about a year later the United States conducted its first successful test of an ICBM on November 28th 1958 the missile known as the atlas D was launched from Cape Canaveral flight fla and successfully completed its test flight demonstrating the United States capability to deploy longrange ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads the development and deployment of icbms significantly impacted the Strategic dynamics of the era contributing to the doctrine of mutual assured destruction France conducted its first ever nuclear test on February 13th 1960 the test took place in the Algerian Sahara desert at a site called Regan this successful test made France the fourth country to develop and detonate a nuclear weapon the device had a yield of approximately 70 kilotons which was significantly more powerful than the first tests conducted by the other nuclear Powers this event marked France's entry into the nuclear arms race and established it as a major nuclear power the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated was exploded on October 30th 196 61 the Soviets conducted the test over the Nova zemlia archipelago in the Arctic Ocean the Zar bomber had a yield of 50 megatons which was powerful enough to shatter Windows as far away as 1,000 km or 620 mi from the blast site the explosion created a mushroom cloud that reached about 64 km or 40 Mi High and the shock wave from the blast circled the Earth three times despite its massive power the B was designed to have a theoretical yield of 100 megatons but it was scaled down to reduce radioactive fallout only one year later our civilization faced a possible threat of Extinction due to these weapons in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 it began when American reconnaissance planes uncovered Soviet missile installations in Cuba capable of launching nuclear strikes against major US cities President John F Kennedy facing ing the gravest threat of his presidency responded with a naval blockade around Cuba aiming to prevent further Soviet shipments of military equipment for 1310 days the world watched as Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita kof exchange threats and negotiations each side aware that a single misstep could trigger a catastrophic War the crisis escalated with Soviet ships approaching the blockade line US forces on high alert and the public gripped by fear watching the two superpowers play a game of chicken in a dramatic turn kof blinked first he agreed to dismantle the missile sites in exchange for a US pledge not to invade Cuba and a secret agreement to remove American missiles from turkey and Italy nuclear war and possibly the fall of human civilization was averted by a Razor's Edge 2 years later China conducted its first nuclear test on October 16th 19 1964 the test code named 596 was a successful detonation of a uranium 235 bomb that marked China's entry into the group of nuclear armed States making it the fifth country to develop and test a nuclear weapon only 3 years later China conducted its first hydrogen bomb test on June 17th 1967 known as test number six the device had a yield of 3.
