Word: kiloton
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...radio and television, casually broadcast and half-heard at first. The sound track carries snatches of references that accelerate to slightly longer descrip tions of airport blockades and MiG-25s "invading West German airspace" and that end, finally, with a shocked anchorwoman saying, "Three nuclear weapons in the low-kiloton range were airburst this morning over advancing Soviet troops." There is only calamity after that. ABC's determination to keep up appearances of political evenhandedness have helped the film makers conjure up what seems like a spookily accurate scenario for Armaged don: the beginnings of worldwide disaster...
...study by Boeing Aerospace Co. suggests the feasibility of producing a 38-ft. intercontinental ballistic missile (SICBM) that would have a range comparable to the 7,500 miles covered by the 71-ft. MX. Its single warhead would probably carry a 500-kiloton punch, in contrast to MX's ten warheads, each with a 330-kiloton, independently targeted payload. Some Pentagon experts contend that a design breakthrough will permit the small missile to be moved about on a heavily armored vehicle dubbed the Armadillo. This launcher would be anchored when firing and be stable enough to handle the missile...
...mobile, which makes it harder to find and destroy. Each has its own launcher, and Western intelligence experts suspect there is room for a second reload missile inside; the launcher runs under its own power on tank treads or tires. The missile is MIRVed, carrying three 150-kiloton warheads, each with its programmed target. The SS-20 is a replacement for the antiquated SS-4 and SS-5, which nevertheless remain deployed and are under negotiation in Geneva. The Soviets have deployed some 340 SS-20s in the past six years-a rate of more than one a week-scattered...
...timing was both fitting and macabre. Last Thursday the U.S. detonated a nuclear bomb in the 20-to 150-kiloton class under the desert of Yucca Flat, Nev. The test blast was the eleventh this year, but it came on the eve of the 37th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and on the day the U.S. grass-roots nuclear-freeze movement faced its first real test of political strength...
...symbols appear over enemy outposts. Artillery fire slashes across the screen like a laser sword. The flight time the shells is preprogrammed to the millisecond; even reloading is figured in. The computer, executing 2 million programming instructions per second, takes 20 seconds to analyze the effects of a ten-kiloton blast. Towns are reduced to rubble. Forests erupt in flames, represented by flickering red dots. Temperature, humidity and wind speed must be reckoned with; they affect the way fallout will blow and how fast a fireball will spread. "You get a real feeling for the dynamics and time pressures...