Doomsday weapons and weapons to end all wars

[sferrin]

Smuggle it across the southern border, either by plane, sub, or coyote.

 

[Dilandu]

Smuggle it across the southern border, either by plane, sub, or coyote.

Er, the average nuclear warhead is a several hundred kilo device, that required careful maintenance and storage in specific conditions. I agree, that there were warhead, which were more... robust (like gun-type ones), but the majority of implosion-type are not exactly well suited for improper handling.

 

[XB-35]

There were stories/rumour after end of Cold War in 1990s
That Russia had develop a tandem Bioweapon system
First phase was modified Anthrax to kill most of population 60%~90% (depends on source)
Second phase was modified Ebola to kill the remaining survivors by 99%

Gorbachev issue program were ICBM nuclear warheads could be replace with modified Anthrax warheads.
Source: Ken Alibek book "Biohazard"

Another Story/Urban Legend is about a Soviet Doomsday weapon.
In form of large Cargo ship equip with largest H-bomb the Soviets could build.
The Story goes that Program was far into Development as Khrushchev stop it.
not because common sense, but because he had no control over the automatic system that trigger the Doomsday weapon.

Also the story that JFK tell that Soviet embassy had large thermonuclear bomb in their basement.

I have seen this large cargo ship, with its hull filled with a gigantic H-Bomb, in an episode of "Secret Weapons" narrated by Charlton Heston. I wonder if there are studies, drawings of this Doomsday weapon project ?

 

[Michel Van]

if there are studies, drawings of this Doomsday weapon project ?

I have no idea, so far i known all source informations are from USA...

 

[Dilandu]

I have seen this large cargo ship, with its hull filled with a gigantic H-Bomb, in an episode of "Secret Weapons" narrated by Charlton Heston. I wonder if there are studies, drawings of this Doomsday weapon project ?

I never heard about anything like that. As far as I know, USSR did not considered gigaton-scale bombs.

 

[Orionblamblam]

There should be some means to detect the radiation produced by a nuclear device, in my opinion it should be a priority for the national security of all countries. Considering the volume of goods that enter the ports of the United States daily and that cross the Panama Canal, the system (if any) should be some kind of very fast and discreet scanner.

There are neutron and gamma detectors scattered throughout major cities and certainly in ports and points of entry. X-ray scanners big enough for trucks and intermodal containers. But you can't scan an entire country, and nuclear bombs generally aren't all *that* radioactive... especially if you are actively shielding them. Wrap your nuke in plastic and suspend it in the middle of the tank of a tanker truck, and fill the tank with water and you've got *feet* of shielding. Shielding that you can easily explain.

A nuke would doubtless be smuggled in through points other than ports: a sub wanders up close to shore, special forces swim it up to a beach where there's a waiting truck. Or a cargo ship drops off an inflatable boat in international waters, the inflatable boat gets it the rest of the way, towing it underwater to shield it. or a cargo ship drops off an innocuous looking pleasure craft or small fishing vessel.

Lots of ways to sneak in a nuke.

 

[Dilandu]

Lots of ways to sneak in a nuke.

Yes, but... who exactly could be interested in doing this? Obviously not nuclear superpowers - neither Russia nor China have any need for such elaborate tricks. Hardly Britain or France; firstly, they are in good relations with USA, secondly, they have MIRV'ed missiles for that. So who's left? India? Good relations with USA. Pakistan? Chinese client state, close ally. Israel? US close ally. North Korea? Seems much more interested in developing sea-based deterrence.

 

[Justo Miranda]

There should be some means to detect the radiation produced by a nuclear device, in my opinion it should be a priority for the national security of all countries. Considering the volume of goods that enter the ports of the United States daily and that cross the Panama Canal, the system (if any) should be some kind of very fast and discreet scanner.

There are neutron and gamma detectors scattered throughout major cities and certainly in ports and points of entry. X-ray scanners big enough for trucks and intermodal containers. But you can't scan an entire country, and nuclear bombs generally aren't all *that* radioactive... especially if you are actively shielding them. Wrap your nuke in plastic and suspend it in the middle of the tank of a tanker truck, and fill the tank with water and you've got *feet* of shielding. Shielding that you can easily explain.

A nuke would doubtless be smuggled in through points other than ports: a sub wanders up close to shore, special forces swim it up to a beach where there's a waiting truck. Or a cargo ship drops off an inflatable boat in international waters, the inflatable boat gets it the rest of the way, towing it underwater to shield it. or a cargo ship drops off an innocuous looking pleasure craft or small fishing vessel.

Lots of ways to sneak in a nuke.

Thanks for answering the question, now I understand the security problem better.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Lots of ways to sneak in a nuke.

Yes, but... who exactly could be interested in doing this?

SPECTRE.

And anyone who thinks that they can:
1: Sneak in a nuke
2: Set it off
3: Get it blamed on someone else
4: Watch the US blow the crap out of someone else
5: ...
6: Profit!

I don't know that anyone who can actually make a nuke actually thinks that they could pull all that off, but I try to not underestimate just how crazy some people get. If ISIS somehow got hold of an Israeli nuke, they're just maybe crazy enough to think that nuking Miami might cause the US to flatten Tel Aviv. Perhaps a slightly less crazy notion might be for a decade or two down the line after China absorbs most of its neighbors while the US sits back and clucks, perhaps someone in Japan might think that the thing to do is spark a war between the US and China before it's too late. Or, indeed, someone in the US might decide that China is getting too big for its britches, and thus a nuke goes off in Russia and gets blamed on China. A bit dodgy, I know, but maybe take a page from "By Dawn's Early Light" and hijack a Chinese ICBM somehow and sit back and watch China and Russia slug it out.

 

[antigravite]

Hi.

To the best f my knowledge, the concept of a "Doomsday Machine" as an expression originated from ne of Herman's Kahn papers / book chapters.

See: "Herman Kahn’s Doomsday Machine", Air Force Magazine, July 2014, p.65
URL: https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Magazine Documents/2014/July 2014/0714keeperfile.pdf

A.

 

[antigravite]

Hi,

did you ever consider here discussing asteroids as potential space weapons / dommsday machines?

Some literature on that subject is available. Including in this 2002 rand report: Space Weapons Earth Wars

Appendix C NATURAL METEOROIDS AS WEAPONS from Space Weapons Earth Wars on JSTOR

Appendix C, Space Weapons Earth Wars, pp. 173-184

www.jstor.org

See: appendix C "Natural Meteroides as weapons" p.173

A.

 

[Foo Fighter]

Shirley the next big thing in weaponry would be the bio weapon that only associates with certain classes of people? Hold that thought they are already beyond the realms of becoming smart anyway so the weapon has probably already been released. All that hard work and nobody has a clue it even happened, gutted.

 

[GTX]

Maybe doomsday weapons have already been released. Its called misinformation and the politicisation of facts and threatens our society already - just look at the lunacy around COVID.

Fake news is a threat to humanity, but scientists may have a solution | Dana Nuccitelli

Dana Nuccitelli: “Technocognition” proposes that we use technology and psychology to break through the mental barriers that make people deny threats like climate change

www.theguardian.com

 

[Michel Van]

I never heard about anything like that. As far as I know, USSR did not considered gigaton-scale bombs.

Like i say, the Information came only from US sources

On Warheads,
Khrushchev was obsessed with an idea of 100 megaton fusion warheads on super ICBM
It let to UR-500 ICBM and program Vanya better known as Tsar Bomba biggest nuclear explosion.
After Khrushchev removal by Brezhnev
The program for big megaton warheads was terminated
The UR-500 ICBM became the Proton rocket

 

[Dilandu]

On Warheads,
Khrushchev was obsessed with an idea of 100 megaton fusion warheads on super ICBM
It let to UR-500 ICBM and program Vanya better known as Tsar Bomba biggest nuclear explosion.
After Khrushchev removal by Brezhnev
The program for big megaton warheads was terminated
The UR-500 ICBM became the Proton rocket

100 megaton - yes. The AH602, "Tsar bomba" was designed 101 megaton three-stage device (it was "downgraded" for testing because on full power, her third stage would release truly enormous amount of fallout). And UR-500 was planned for her warhead version. But as far as I know, more powerful devices weren't considered. Definitely nothing on the gigaton scale.

 

[Sherman Tank]

The old Supersonic Low Altitude Missile is about as good a Doomsday weapon as I can think of, although I'm sure they're plenty of ways to make it even nastier if you put in some thought.

 

[Nik]

That nuke in cargo ship thing...

I was just old enough during Cuban Crisis to understand enough to be totally terrified. We were 'situate' in the eye of a Vern diagram, with too many strategic targets around. We cleared the cubby under the stairs, prised up floor-boards to allow access to the shallow crawl-space in extremis. We moved in our 'camping stuff' and garden / DIY tools etc etc. Food, water, medicine etc etc. Clothing, blankets etc etc. I brought a big bag of my school-books home, and we gathered all our own reference books, dictionaries etc. Tied a ladder slant over the cubby door to keep it clear if roof collapsed. My young brother and I slept in cubby....

If sirens sounded warning, rest of family would come running. Our fear was that one or more of the many ships in port, in estuary or along Ship Canal was a 'false flag' with a big nuke in its double bottom or other compartment. If so, our first warning would be an early sun-rise to our South or West or East. Or all three....

If so, it would be down to me to lift those boards, access crawl space, breach panel beneath front door, survive, endure, protect and educate my brother as best I could: Kipling Rules, so Jungle Book etc....

Brrrrr...

Helluva responsibility to hand a shy, pre-teen boy but, thankfully, sufficient sanity sorta prevailed...

 

[Nik]

Bomb-ships: IIRC, there was some talk at time that part of UK's early nuclear deterrent was 'Merchant Navy' freighters, each with a hidden nuke. If armed, so the story went, bomb just needed to not hear 'BBC World Service' for eg 24 hrs. As station could be expected to fail come Armageddon...

There is no indication that the Russians gave this tale any credence, but it scared the sox off us.
Far, far too many ways to go hellishly, horribly wrong...

 

[Orionblamblam]

Far, far too many ways to go hellishly, horribly wrong...

That's the problem with most "doomsday weapons..." some clever triggering device or system that can be screwed up by a squirrel chewing through a cable. The BBC could go off the air due to, I dunno, a big earthquake in London. The radio signals could get jammed, either intentionally or through some unfortunate natural phenomenon (Carrignton event?). The doomsday weapons antenna could fail. The BBC could go silent for 24 *seconds* and it turns out there was a slight calibration error between "seconds" and "hours" in the doomsday device. The BBC could shift frequencies, go from analog to digital.

 

[Dilandu]

There is no indication that the Russians gave this tale any credence, but it scared the sox off us.
Far, far too many ways to go hellishly, horribly wrong...

I suspect there weren't that much British merchant ships in significant Soviet ports in any given time, and in case of war scare, they would probably went home anyway.

 

[Bottleship]

2 February 1956, Saharov, Zel'dovich, Davidenko to Pavlov, about 150 Mt and 1 Gt bomb:

ÐÑомнÑй пÑÐ¾ÐµÐºÑ Ð¡Ð¡Ð¡Ð : докÑменÑÑ Ð¸ маÑеÑиалÑ. Т. 3. Ðн. 2. â 2009 / ÐÑоÑмоÑÑ Ð¸Ð·Ð´Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ // ÐлекÑÑÐ¾Ð½Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð±Ð¸Ð±Ð»Ð¸Ð¾Ñека /// ÐÑÑоÑÐ¸Ñ Ð Ð¾ÑаÑома

ÐÑомнÑй пÑÐ¾ÐµÐºÑ Ð¡Ð¡Ð¡Ð : докÑменÑÑ Ð¸ маÑеÑÐ¸Ð°Ð»Ñ : [в 3 Ñ.] / Ðод обÑ. Ñед. Ð. Ð. Ð Ñбева. â 1998â2010.Т. 3. ÐодоÑÐ¾Ð´Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð±Ð¾Ð¼Ð±Ð°, 1945â1956. Ðн. 2 / ÐоÑ. коÑпоÑаÑÐ¸Ñ Ð¿Ð¾ аÑом. ÑнеÑгии «РоÑаÑом»; ÑоÑÑ.: Ð. Ð....

elib.biblioatom.ru

"[a bomb] of 1 billion tons of TNT can be made with an increase in the weight of deuterides by 6-7 times, and the weight of fissile materials by 3 times."
That is, at least the possibility of creating a super-bomb was discussed in the USSR.
I also found information that Sergei Korolev designed N-2, N-3, N-4, huge missiles weighing 7000, 12000 and 18000 tons, if N-4 was 6 times heavier than N-1, it should have been lifted in 6 times more cargo, 540 tons versus 90 tons. At the same time, there was a project N-1M using hydrogen-oxygen engines with a load of 155-175 tons, that is, 1.72-1.94 times more than N-1. A theoretically possible N-4M could lift 930-1050 tons. That is, one could expect the possibility of creating a rocket for a super-bomb.

 

[Nik]

Speaking of 'Heavy Hitters', isn't there an asteroid-bashing mission about to launch ? Take about a year to reach target, one of those binary rocks, will whack the smaller. Hopefully alter its orbit length around 'Momma' enough to figure momentum transfer efficiency. IIRC, there's a cube-sat along to watch the dust fly...

( IIRC, recently been some interesting work on nuke stand-off distance vs dispersal. Trick is to break space-rock enough for shot-gun blast of incoming debris to burn-up 'safely' as individual fragments rather than punch down en-masse. Seriously non-linear effects... )

 

[RanulfC]

2 February 1956, Saharov, Zel'dovich, Davidenko to Pavlov, about 150 Mt and 1 Gt bomb:

ÐÑомнÑй пÑÐ¾ÐµÐºÑ Ð¡Ð¡Ð¡Ð : докÑменÑÑ Ð¸ маÑеÑиалÑ. Т. 3. Ðн. 2. â 2009 / ÐÑоÑмоÑÑ Ð¸Ð·Ð´Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ // ÐлекÑÑÐ¾Ð½Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð±Ð¸Ð±Ð»Ð¸Ð¾Ñека /// ÐÑÑоÑÐ¸Ñ Ð Ð¾ÑаÑома

ÐÑомнÑй пÑÐ¾ÐµÐºÑ Ð¡Ð¡Ð¡Ð : докÑменÑÑ Ð¸ маÑеÑÐ¸Ð°Ð»Ñ : [в 3 Ñ.] / Ðод обÑ. Ñед. Ð. Ð. Ð Ñбева. â 1998â2010.Т. 3. ÐодоÑÐ¾Ð´Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð±Ð¾Ð¼Ð±Ð°, 1945â1956. Ðн. 2 / ÐоÑ. коÑпоÑаÑÐ¸Ñ Ð¿Ð¾ аÑом. ÑнеÑгии «РоÑаÑом»; ÑоÑÑ.: Ð. Ð....

elib.biblioatom.ru

"[a bomb] of 1 billion tons of TNT can be made with an increase in the weight of deuterides by 6-7 times, and the weight of fissile materials by 3 times."
That is, at least the possibility of creating a super-bomb was discussed in the USSR.
I also found information that Sergei Korolev designed N-2, N-3, N-4, huge missiles weighing 7000, 12000 and 18000 tons, if N-4 was 6 times heavier than N-1, it should have been lifted in 6 times more cargo, 540 tons versus 90 tons. At the same time, there was a project N-1M using hydrogen-oxygen engines with a load of 155-175 tons, that is, 1.72-1.94 times more than N-1. A theoretically possible N-4M could lift 930-1050 tons. That is, one could expect the possibility of creating a rocket for a super-bomb.

I remember reading a small article in the "Stars and Stripes" in Europe during the early 80s on how a "senior Soviet physicist" was escorted from a conference in New York and put on a plane back to Moscow. The given reason? HIs "theoretical calculations" were directly leading to showing how a gigaton nuclear reaction could be obtained. I've checked the article ONLY appeared in the European "Stars and Stripes"

At a guess? "Message received'

Randy

 

[publiusr]

If that was Sakharov…he might have been led away for other reasons. He came up with the layer cake design

 

[muttly]

A doomsday device could be almost anything. Nuke, poison,disease,electromagnetic pulse,
or any combination there of would do the trick and if done in several places at once could
bring a chain of events there would be no return from.

 

[Orionblamblam]

A doomsday device could be almost anything. Nuke, poison,disease,electromagnetic pulse,
or any combination ...

A doomsday weapon could also be no more substantial than an idea. If you can convince a people that they should not reproduce, that they and/or their culture are evil and not worth preserving, that the technologies that support their civilization are morally wrong... then their power, their wealth, their ability and even desire to defend themselves and in the end their *numbers* will decline. This makes them easier to invade and conquer. If the idea is insidious enough, promoted often and deviously enough, you can even get them to welcome the invasion and the takeover.

 

[Fluff]

A doomsday device could be almost anything. Nuke, poison,disease,electromagnetic pulse,
or any combination ...

A doomsday weapon could also be no more substantial than an idea. If you can convince a people that they should not reproduce, that they and/or their culture are evil and not worth preserving, that the technologies that support their civilization are morally wrong... then their power, their wealth, their ability and even desire to defend themselves and in the end their *numbers* will decline. This makes them easier to invade and conquer. If the idea is insidious enough, promoted often and deviously enough, you can even get them to welcome the invasion and the takeover.

Well, its a good job no-one is doing anything like that then......

 

[Orionblamblam]

A doomsday device could be almost anything. Nuke, poison,disease,electromagnetic pulse,
or any combination ...

A doomsday weapon could also be no more substantial than an idea. If you can convince a people that they should not reproduce, that they and/or their culture are evil and not worth preserving, that the technologies that support their civilization are morally wrong... then their power, their wealth, their ability and even desire to defend themselves and in the end their *numbers* will decline. This makes them easier to invade and conquer. If the idea is insidious enough, promoted often and deviously enough, you can even get them to welcome the invasion and the takeover.

Well, its a good job no-one is doing anything like that then......

Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.

 

[Orionblamblam]

часто встречается мнение, что ядерное оружие предотвратило крупные войны во второй половине двадцатого века, но оно и позволило "вырасти поколениям, забывшим первую и вторую мировую войны" и сейчас некоторые из этих людей, опасные безумцы, очень легко рассуждают о использовании ядерного оружие против той или другой страны, совершенно не думая о последствиях

так что doomsday device это дерьмовая идея
не хотелось бы чтобы жизнь на Земле закончилась так нелепо

Translation:

ᚩᚠᛏᛖᚾ ᛏᚻᛖᚱᛖ ᛁᛋ ᚪᚾ ᚩᛈᛁᚾᛁᚩᚾ ᛏᚻᚪᛏ ᚾᚢᚳᛚᛖᚪᚱ ᚹᛖᚪᛈᚩᚾᛋ ᛈᚱᛖvᛖᚾᛏᛖᛞ ᛗᚪᛡᚩᚱ ᚹᚪᚱᛋ ᛁᚾ ᛏᚻᛖ ᛋᛖᚳᚩᚾᛞ ᚻᚪᛚᚠ ᚩᚠ ᛏᚻᛖ ᛏᚹᛖᚾᛏᛁᛖᛏᚻ ᚳᛖᚾᛏᚢᚱᚣ, ᛒᚢᛏ ᛏᚻᛖᚣ ᚪᛚᛋᚩ ᚪᛚᛚᚩᚹᛖᛞ "ᚷᛖᚾᛖᚱᚪᛏᛁᚩᚾᛋ ᛏᚩ ᚷᚱᚩᚹ ᚢᛈ ᛏᚻᚪᛏ ᚠᚩᚱᚷᚩᛏ ᛏᚻᛖ ᚠᛁᚱᛋᛏ ᚪᚾᛞ ᛋᛖᚳᚩᚾᛞ ᚹᚩᚱᛚᛞ ᚹᚪᚱᛋ" ᚪᚾᛞ ᚾᚩᚹ ᛋᚩᛗᛖ ᚩᚠ ᛏᚻᛖᛋᛖ ᛈᛖᚩᛈᛚᛖ, ᛞᚪᚾᚷᛖᚱᚩᚢᛋ ᛗᚪᛞᛗᛖᚾ, vᛖᚱᚣ ᛖᚪᛋᛁᛚᚣ ᛋᚪᚣ ᛏᚻᚪᛏ ᛁᛏ ᛁᛋ ᛈᛖᚱᛗᛁᛋᛋᛁᛒᛚᛖ ᛏᚩ ᚢᛋᛖ ᚾᚢᚳᛚᛖᚪᚱ ᚹᛖᚪᛈᚩᚾᛋ ᚪᚷᚪᛁᚾᛋᛏ ᛏᚻᛁᛋ ᚩᚱ ᛏᚻᚪᛏ ᚳᚩᚢᚾᛏᚱᚣ, ᚳᚩᛗᛈᛚᛖᛏᛖᛚᚣ ᚹᛁᛏᚻᚩᚢᛏ ᛏᚻᛁᚾkᛁᚾᚷ ᚪᛒᚩᚢᛏ ᛏᚻᛖ ᚳᚩᚾᛋᛖqᚢᛖᚾᚳᛖᛋ

ᛋᚩ ᛞᚩᚩᛗᛋᛞᚪᚣ ᛞᛖvᛁᚳᛖ ᛁᛋ ᚪ ᛋᚻᛁᛏᛏᚣ ᛁᛞᛖᚪ
ᛁ ᚹᚩᚢᛚᛞ ᚾᚩᛏ ᚹᚪᚾᛏ ᛚᛁᚠᛖ ᚩᚾ ᛖᚪᚱᛏᚻ ᛏᚩ ᛖᚾᛞ ᛋᚩ ᚱᛁᛞᛁᚳᚢᛚᚩᚢᛋᛚᚣ

And now we know.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Mutation

 

[Arjen]

OBB's rendering of #69 in runes fed to google translate resulted in runes. Stupid. Unhelpful. Google translate makes passable English of Russian text in #69.

I would like forum members to stick with English on this forum. Not runic tosh, or Russian, or even my native Dutch - there are some quite interesting Dutch sites which 99% of forum members will find hard to understand without machine translation.

If you post a non-English text, please be kind enough to also provide a translation in English. It is the civil thing to do.

 

[Orionblamblam]

OBB's rendering of #69 in runes fed to google translate resulted in runes. Stupid. Unhelpful.

Sez you. Runes improve *everything.*

 

[Rhinocrates]

Evopsych perspective on the use of threats and bluffs. The author discusses observations of the mantis shrimp, an animal literally capable of killing a member of the same species 'with one blow' and also makes parallels with the current Russia-Ukraine standoff.

The Wild World of Threats

Animals, including us, evolved to bluster and bluff at their peril.

nautil.us

 

[Rhinocrates]

Stanislaw Lem's novel Fiasco is one of the most sophisticated analyses of escalation involving doomsday weapons.

A couple of sources discussing it:

Escalation and Eschatology in Stanislaw Lem's <em>Fiasco</em>

I wrote this essay as the final paper for my junior independent study course, English 401, at the College of Wooster. The class was a sort o...

thebooksthatwroteme.blogspot.com

Fiasco

garethrees.org

All the more pertinent now in the context of such practices as maskirovka or hybrid war where dissimulation is the essence.

 

[martinbayer]

OBB's rendering of #69 in runes fed to google translate resulted in runes. Stupid. Unhelpful. Google translate makes passable English of Russian text in #69.

I would like forum members to stick with English on this forum. Not runic tosh, or Russian, or even my native Dutch - there are some quite interesting Dutch sites which 99% of forum members will find hard to understand without machine translation.

If you post a non-English text, please be kind enough to also provide a translation in English. It is the civil thing to do.

As a native German, I wholeheartedly agree - for some members, it appears 'civil' has lost all of its meaning though. English typed in the Latin alphabet is the bridge language of the aerospace community - let's keep it that way.

 

[Rhinocrates]

The path to the use of nominally deterrent ultimate weapons is mapped out by Hermann Kahn in his 'Escalation Ladder'. The safest ladder is the one that has the biggest gaps between the rungs, hence the danger of tactical or intermediate nukes.

Herman Kahn - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2007/R3235.pdf

https://www.hudson.org/content/researchattachments/attachment/842/kahnpublicnuclearstrategywohlstetter.pdf

Kahn listed six desirable characteristics of a deterrent: (1) frightening; (2) inexorable; (3) persuasive; (4) cheap; (5) non-accident prone; (6) controllable

Regarding types of deterrence, Kahn offered three “conceptualized devices”: (1) Doomsday Machine—automatic world destruction response to Type II or Type III provocations by an adversary; (2) Doomsday in a Hurry Machine—alerting prospective attackers that an attack will trigger Doomsday in response to specified Type II or Type III provocations; (3) Homicide Pact Machine—automatic world destruction response to direct Type I nuclear attack

See also:

On Escalation: Kahn, Herman + Free Shipping

On Escalation: Kahn, Herman + Free Shipping

www.amazon.com

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271626636600119 (paywalled, but cheap as a one-off).

It's an intellectually 'sweet' concept, but too simplistic to be dependable.

American Understanding of Thresholds Is Impractical from Stretching and Exploiting Thresholds for High-Order War: How Russia, China, and Iran Are Eroding American Influence Using Time-Tested Measures Short of War on JSTOR

American Understanding of Thresholds Is Impractical, Stretching and Exploiting Thresholds for High-Order War, pp. 9-16

www.jstor.org

While the character of Dr Strangelove in Kubrick's film of the same name is often thought of being based on Edward Teller or Werner von Braun, he was actually a composite and Kahn was certainly a major part (Strangelove himself refers to a study by the 'BLAND Corporation', a parody of RAND).

‘Dr. Strangelove’ Is Basically a Documentary

The movie is fiction, but according to Daniel Ellsberg the scenarios involved aren't far from reality.

www.wired.com

the idea for the Doomsday Machine in Dr. Strangelove was inspired by the real-life thinking of Herman Kahn, one of Ellsberg’s colleagues at RAND. “Kahn’s words are actually quoted in the movie, and Kahn himself wanted a cut, he thought he should get some royalties from this,” Ellsberg says. “And Kubrick had to assure him that wasn’t the way it worked.”

 

[The K2]

The old Supersonic Low Altitude Missile is about as good a Doomsday weapon as I can think of, although I'm sure they're plenty of ways to make it even nastier if you put in some

SLAM!

Supersonic Low Altitude Missile - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[publiusr]

SLAM would be a good gas giant probe.

 

[Forest Green]

I remember hearing about a proposal by the Soviets to have a ship that sailed around Russia that looked like a freight ship but was actually one huge H-Bomb. If all was lost, the device would be triggered. Khrushchev thought it was too crazy, and that was really saying something.

 

[Rhinocrates]

SLAM would be a good gas giant probe.

Yeah but do we want to piss off the creatures that could live in a gas giant?

John Wyndham, The Kraken Wakes (aka Out of the Deeps). Essentially he recycled the plot of The Day of the Triffids, but this time it's invaders from Jupiter who decide to make Earth a waterworld.