Operation Hardtack, Oak test (US). This photo shows the cloud from the explosion of the 8.9 megaton TX-46 hydrogen bomb (H-Bomb). The test device was 37 inches in diameter, 100.5 inches long, and weighed 6113 lb. The bomb was mounted on a barge in an area of 12 foot deep water, Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 28 June 1958. Photo from Olive Drab.U.S. Looks To Nonnuclear Weapons To Use As Deterrent -- Washington Post
As the White House pushes for cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the Pentagon is developing a weapon to help fill the gap: missiles armed with conventional warheads that could strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour.
U.S. military officials say the intercontinental ballistic missiles, known as Prompt Global Strike weapons, are a necessary new form of deterrence against terrorist networks and other adversaries. As envisioned, the conventional missiles would give the White House a fresh military option to consider in a crisis that would not result in a radioactive mushroom cloud.
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My Comment: Anyone with a half a brain who travels and lives abroad knows that other countries view America's nuclear deterrent as the ultimate deterrent in it's arsenal. Conventional weapons do not even come close to matching it.