Russian TV "Accidentally" Leaks Footage of Classified Nuclear Torpedo Design

http://ift.tt/1WUMbxu

Quote:

The footnote to the slide stated that Status-6 is intended to cause “assured unacceptable damage” to an adversary force. Its detonation “in the area of the enemy coast” would result in “extensive zones of radioactive contamination” that would ensure that the region would not be used for “military, economic, business or other activity” for a “long time.”

If true, this is a very troubling reversal in the decades-long trend in weapons design. The trend has been for smaller and more accurate weapons (yes, including smaller nuclear weapons), which minimize collateral damage. Whereas this thing is an area denial weapon -- it deliberately maximizes collateral damage. Basically, as one of the commenters on the article said, it is a dirty bomb scaled up to huge size.

Even if it is a bluff (i.e. the leak was deliberate), it says a lot about the psychology of Russian leadership that they bluff with "we can kill and/or poison huge swaths of civilians" instead of "we can sink all your carriers".