Casaba-Howitzer style cruise missile | Nuclear Option | Page 1

fathom iris Apr 4, 2025, 2:01 PM

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Essentially, a shaped-charge nuke in a cruise missile format, could be used to destroy ships while keeping the missile out of AA range or to eliminate enemy airfields without blowing friendly planes out of the air.

tranquil anvil Apr 4, 2025, 3:09 PM

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oh man have i had dreams about shaped charge nukes

fathom iris Apr 4, 2025, 3:27 PM

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theyre so cool

sage herald Apr 5, 2025, 2:37 AM

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I do love me some sci fi nonsense

fathom iris Apr 5, 2025, 3:35 PM

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they have been tested! they work kinda well with sub-kiloton warheads!

sick dome Apr 5, 2025, 7:15 PM

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I do believe the effects of a casaba howitzer are very muted in the atmosphere, so youd just get an oval shaped detonation and not some kind of beam

naive bane Apr 5, 2025, 7:41 PM

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I've heard of nuclear exlosively formed penetrators maybe that would work better?

sick dome Apr 5, 2025, 8:13 PM

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i think that implies a single target which is weird for a nuke

naive bane Apr 5, 2025, 9:28 PM

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That single target will be absolutely DEAD
It will literally flip a carrier and blast it into a million pieces.

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Makes perfect sense to me

sick dome Apr 5, 2025, 11:32 PM

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Severe overkill

naive bane Apr 5, 2025, 11:38 PM

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In the past some navies fielded nuclear torpedos

If the BDF and PALA are having some kind of cold war maybe they bought or designed a bunch of lunatic superweapons to use. And the only real superweapons are nukes.

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maybe the casaba howitzer is better since it has more limited range which sort of gives the target a chance to stop it

sick dome Apr 5, 2025, 11:43 PM

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Overkill also in the fact that the added mass and size of either doesnt give much range benifit, even the EFP doesnt because at the end of the day you can only impart so much of that bombs energy with the penetrator, itd go straight through and do not much else

naive bane Apr 5, 2025, 11:45 PM

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would it be possible to make a bunch of small penetrators instead of one big one?

sick dome Apr 5, 2025, 11:47 PM

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Probably but really I dont think theres a lot of use, just use a regular nuke with decoys or ECCM

naive bane Apr 5, 2025, 11:49 PM

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sure. I think a nuclear antiship missile should just be a supersonic missile that detonates right on top of a ship
If multiple ships are targeted it averages their location and tries to get more than one caught in the blast, prioritizing the most valuable ones.

#Casaba-Howitzer style cruise missile