Just like the first Iraq war and its Scuds. Back then it was speculated that there was a possibility of them having NBC warheads and the allies did wait until impact. Israeli cities were targeted.

Scuds had a range between 100 – 500 KM. They could barely get out of Iraq, let alone target USA. Israel did keep open the possibility of a first strike with nukes against Iraq, but then decided to take the risk of waiting for a strike from Iraq before retaliating. There was enough doubt whether Iraq had a working Nuke (we know now it did not) to take that chance.

If launching a BM at the US by another country with proven nukes and long range missiles, away from the immediate theatre of war, will not invite an instant retaliation, then the credibility of the entire US nuclear doctrine is at stake.

Once BMs enter the picture in a conflict between US and China, you are already on an escalation path that will only end with either a mutual nuclear strike or China offering a truce or surrender.

With a 15-20 minute advance notice of the launch of the ASBM (by satellite), a ship can move away between 10 – 20 kilometers from the original location. Can the missile maneuver so much in the last phase of its flight ? Will radar work with the sea as a background (looking from top ?). For optical homing, what if the ships are camouflaged with blue paint ?

Cruise missiles are designed to follow terrain and do all sorts of maneuvers to avoid defenses and hit the ship. The BM launch will be more easily detected than a cruise missile, and it has less ability to steer and also has no power after the first phase of flight.

A ASBM sounds like a novel but somewhat iffy idea.

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What about tactical nukes against an enemy carrier group within your own territorial waters ?

I think we can all agree that India has at the least working 25 kt nukes, many of them.

Would development of accurate MIRV missiles (topic of this forum) make this a credible minimum deterrent for the time being until we grow bold to test again ?

If the tests were indeed a fizzle and BARC etc are working as we speak towards fixing it, then Santhanam’s outburst could almost be classified as traitorous, as he has exposed our weakness before we could make up. Its a fine line.

No on has alleged the bomb did not go off – only contesting the yield. Its nice to have 200 KT, but even if we have 50 TNs each capable of 45 KT, its a start. The approximate destruction radius of a 45 Kt bomb is 3 Kms and that of a 200 Kt one is 4.5 kms.

Increased accuracy of missiles can compensate for this and with MIRV 4×45 Kt gives huge advantage over 1×200 Kt. Sure 4×200 Kt would be better.

World over everyone is moving to lighter multiple warheads, each with 20-50 Kt yield as an optimal option.

Human pollution is clearly bad for many reasons, health etc, and there could certainly be effects on environment that are not fully understood. Its a good idea to have a firm plan to manage it and reduce it over time.

However, this whole carbon thingy is a scam of the highest order. Taxpayers are sponsoring a bunch of industries who can now make new ‘green’ technology and force their sale to create an artificial market worth billions.

Politicians like it because there nothing like a good scare to keep the population distracted from the financial mess. Environment is a nice vague issue where the bluff can’t be called until decades have passed.

We can’t give back all that money bankers stole from you – but hey we are cleaning up the sky, Right!!!