Word: kiloton
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...ready warheads, more than 25,000 are "tactical"-designed for short-range (mostly under 30 miles) battlefield or defensive use. Many are tiny power-packages of less than a kiloton (equal to 1,000 tons of TNT) that could be sent on slender, supersonic missiles to wipe out a company, sink a ship or shoot down planes...
...dropped eight finned, 130 lb. bombs which spewed a cloud of minute silver iodide particles as they fell. The crystals acted like small ice "seeds," and supercooled droplets of water instantly froze around them. Instant icing released the latent heat of fusion, equivalent to the energy of eight 20-kiloton atomic bombs. In one hour, radar showed that a 160° segment of the chimney had been knocked out. Maximum wind speeds dropped by as much as 14% in the seeded sector. But two hours after seeding stopped, Esther had repaired the damage...
...sense, practical consequences of the test ban are relatively minor. It will not end the arms race or reduce nuclear stockpiles by a single kiloton. It obviously will not tip the balance of power-or both sides would not have accepted it. Its most concrete result is to reduce widespread fears-exaggerated but real-of radioactive fallout. The agreement may also help to check nuclear proliferation. Red China will scarcely give up its project to build an Abomb, nor is Charles de Gaulle likely to abandon his cherished force de frappe. But beyond these, the U.S. estimates, ten countries have...
...since the U.S. striking power is so great. Used to big numbers, they dismiss De Gaulle's force as being less than 2% of the striking power of U.S. missiles and aircraft. But at that, De Gaulle's Mirage IV and Etendard IV planes will carry 50-kiloton bombs-more than twice the power of the bomb that leveled Hiroshima. As part of McNamara's conviction that the manned bomber will soon be obsolete, De Gaulle's force will be out of date before it is active-but McNamara will find argument inside his own Pentagon...
...Nike-Zeus rocket, "interception" does not necessarily mean "a hit.'" Scientists calculate that with a one-kiloton warhead the rocket could either neutralize or destroy a multimegaton monster from a distance of a mile or more. The theory has yet to be tested, but it has silenced critics who originally scorned the plan as a foolhardy attempt to "hit a bullet with a bullet." Says an official of Douglas Aircraft, one of the major contractors for the program: "It's like hitting a bullet with a couple of football stadiums...