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Ballistic missile delivery depends very much on knowing exactly where you are launching from. Early SLBM launch platforms had typical positional uncertainties of 100's of metres. As the missile and any MIRV warheads were just unguided projectiles launch positional errors magnified and the resultant destination error could be very wide. Land based missiles ...

Hiroshima, the first city, was "an important army depot and port of embarkation in the middle of an urban industrial area. It is a good radar target and it is such a size that a large part of the city could be extensively damaged. There are adjacent hills which are likely to produce a focussing[sic] effect which would considerably increase the blast damage. ...

The U.S. likely did not target Tokyo for the atomic bomb strikes as it was the seat of the Emperor and the location of much of the high ranking military officers. These are precisely the people you do not want to kill if you want to negotiate a surrender, as they are the people you would be negotiating with. The U.S. decided to drop the bombs onto military ...

The United States could produce enough nuclear material for one atomic bomb every six months. In August, 1945, it had the two bombs and at least "part" of a third. If Japan hadn't surrendered by then, a third bomb would have been available no later than early 1946.

First, a correction on Deuterium; it is a hydrogen atom with a neutron as well as a proton in its nucleus, giving it an atomic mass of ~2 instead of ~1. Heavy water is a molecule with one hydrogen and one deuterium atom bonding to the oxygen, instead of two regular hydrogen bonding to the oxygen. It's chemical formula is DHO, (or sometimes colloquially but ...

As part of its 1957 "Great Leap Forward," program, China's undertook to ship "surplus" food to the Soviet Union in exchange for help in "industrial" development, especially its nuclear program. That's because one of Khruschev's main concerns during his tenure was agricultural reform, which was grounded in his desire to see Soviet citizens, "live better," or ...