Weird Missle

Does anybody know the name of the missle that destroys all life in that area but no buildings are destroyed

I think you're referring to a warhead. Neutron blast warhead. Kills only living things but does virtually no damage to non living things.

You could possibly be talking about the neutron bomb. Intense radiation that kills all, but leaves structures intact. Developed to fight the Soviet mass troop concentrations, I believe.

Yeah thats the bomb I was thinking of,thanks for anwsering.

I never understood why we'd develope a bomb with such high concentrations of radiation and expect to inhabit that area sometime in the next couple hundred thousand years.

Good point. Why build a bomb to radiate an area that people will want to live in?

Well does this bomb have any radiation in it? (Im not sure since this is a neutron bomb..)

Neutron radiation (alpha radiation I believe) dissipates fairly quickly, if I remember rightly.

But then, I am not an atomic weapons engineer

So then it would be able to be occupied after a while then.

If what I am saying is true, would have thought so!

But then, i could be talking out of my arse

Actually, nuetrons are particles like photons and electrons, not complete atoms. However, they can interact with existing matter and create radioactive atoms through the process of nuetron activation.

I don't know what degree this would happen in a nuetron bomb situation.

Neutron bombs just send out a wave of neutrons that breakdown cells. This kills living things and damages some dead organic materials.

There is almost no after effect or left over radiation after the intial wave. However, there would be organic mush every where. Bone would be left intact as well as most cellulous (trees) but everything else would be melted goo.

So, no radiation, but assuming it was dropped on a lot of troops or civilians you wouldn't want to stick around long. You'd need dump drucks for the bones and left over flesh and fire hoses to spray down everything.

Decay would be greatly delayed however because most of the bacteria in the area would be dead too and only fresh bacteria on the wind would beable to cause flesh decay to set in.

Yeah it kinda sounds gross with all the mush and flesh and everything....so you would have to pretty much wash the city down right and clean it?

Neutron bomb still does a lot of damage. It's a nuclear bomb, just a different type, and it would still destroy most of a city if it exploded over one. The difference is it was designed for defensive use by the allies in a "Fulda Gap" scenario. The Fulda Gap was the shortest route by the Soviets from the Eastern Bloc to Frankfurt, and a weapon was needed that could stop the onslaught at short range. A traditional nuke would effect dug in (ie, allied defending) troops almost as bad as troops in the open, so they developed a nuke with a smaller explosion, which dissipates most of energy in the form of neutrons (I think.. some physics savvy person can correct me on what particles exactly come out of it.) Dug in troops would thus have a much greater advantage.

But the basic idea was to make a nuclear bomb with a large yet highly contained blast area, not a bomb that would protect property but kill humans.

-koji K.

Ah I see kinda of a cool plan I myself think.

Neutron bombs, also called enhanced radiation (ER) weapons, are small nuclear weapons in which the burst of neutrons generated by the fusion reaction is intentionally not absorbed inside the weapon, but allowed to escape. The X-ray mirrors and shell of the weapon are made of chromium or nickel so that the neutrons are permitted to escape. Contrast this with cobalt bombs, also known as salted bombs.

taken from here since im not goning to scan the book i`ve got on teh subject.


basically , the neutron enhanced radiaton weapon is designed to pass through solid objects and effect `peopl`. - BUT

in the case of the M1A1 tank , the DU in the armour would ALSO become radioactive as a product of the high engery wave pasing through it (neutrons are required to start a fission reaction - so therefore throw a wave strong enough at depleted uranium and you will still get a reaction)

Another type of weapon is the X-Ray enhanced radiation weapon - these were the W71 warhead used in the Spartan , as part of the `SAFEGUARD` ABM system of the 1970`s. These were around a 5MT warhead , but the secondary was surrounded by GOLD to enhance the X-RAY radiation effect to attempt to neutralise the incoming ,exo atmospheric wareheads.

But its still a 5 MT warhead with all the blast/heat properties of one just with xray enhancment!

The safeguard site was activated on the 1st october 1975 at full readiness (30 spartans and 70 sprints) , the day after congress voted to shut it down - the base came off alert on november 18th 1975 and was decommissed february 1976 - the warheads were dismantled in 1995.