[Thud]

Jane's statement here is such a bunch of hooey that it makes the whole article suspect:

"A nuclear strike by either country could turn out to be a pyrrhic victory since, due to the close proximity of several cities on either side of the Indo-Pakistani border, the resulting fallout could easily be blown over the attacking country."

City-busters are always airbursts to maximize the blast wave and thermal pulse, and airbursts don't produce short-term fallout.

I wonder if this is disinformation, sloppy journalism or the usual lefty propgaganda.

[Dog Gone]

These are baby nukes in any event. I don't want to minimize the damage or casualties, which would be high, but in the city where I live, you could drop 10 of those pups downtown, and here in the suburbs I'd be fine.

[Dan Day]

City-busters are always airbursts to maximize the blast wave and thermal pulse, and airbursts don't produce short-term fallout.

All nukes, no matter where detonated, produce "short-term fallout" (as well as long term).

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki nukes were air bursts, and there was plenty of lethal fallout from them.

Air bursts don't produce as much as ground bursts, it's true, but there's still enough to kill many, many people.

[Sonny M]

Janes is usually pretty reliable, and they are definaltey not the usual left crap. There pretty much to the point, and considering how many former military personal work for them, its not likely they are over run by liberals.

[Dark Wing]

The FYEO Military newsletter had a much better article on this after the rival Indian/Pakistani nuclear tests.

It looks like Janes has 'Gone European,' AKA Politically Correct, on nuclear issues.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Thud-With all due respect, don't assume that these countries have made the same calculations that you have. These weapons are not neccessarily city busters. They are tactical weapons that may be used on troop concentrations, command and control targets, and bridges and other transportation bottlenecks. They may be used on population centers as a last resort or as a "revenge" weapon.

Furthermore, even if they have air burst designs there is a lot of speculation that some of these weapons will not perform as designed. These countries are not noted for their attention to detail and quality control.

[Lazamataz]

City-busters are always airbursts to maximize the blast wave and thermal pulse, and airbursts don't produce short-term fallout.

These are A-bombs, not H-bombs. They are probably not meant to be city-busters. But all nuclear weapons tend to have more effect when detonated at a 1000 to 2000 yard distance from the ground, so I would expect even these A-bombs to be air-detonated.

[lavaroise]

Indeed, this article is a bunch of bull. Nuclear war is sruvivable. India has waited for a bit too long and now the Pakies are about to inflict them real harm.

If fallout were so bad, then nukes would be no deterent. Although smaller kiloton devices do produce more fallout than megaton ones because the fall out is spread in the lower atmosphere, fallout is manageable with homemade trenches or even walking around with plastic masks and ponchos. Fallout only affects the areas for a short time.