Are nukes made to be used or to scare?

Question

Apparently there are enough nukes in this world to destroy the world 8 times over, why make this many?

Are they made just to sit in countries to scare others away from attacking them or are they made with the intention of using them all?

what happens if some nutter is having a bad day or turns suicidal and wants to nuke to planet to dust, can they just do it or are there procedures in place to stop someone like this? i mean is it a sole decision on weather they are used or do a few people have to agree? i dont know.

sorry if i am sounding thick, i just dont understand why we need so many in the world.

Answer 1

Well, i think it's because countries don't trust each other so they feel the need to make nukes. Yes, their are procedures, if someone wants a nuke launched the people who accually launch are going to have to agree too.

Answer 2

It's called MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).  In the 70's and 80's it was the concept that no one would actually push the button for fear of self destruction.  Makes sense only if you have each other in your sites.

Answer 3

Both.

keep in mind that many of the nukes have to detonate properly.  if th missiles are intercepted or malfunction, the bombs will just land unexploded and leak material. So in reality, if you know anything about military reliablity, we only have enough to kill the world once over.

Originally developed in a race against the Germans, the atomic bomb was orginally an offensive weapon.  After it's inital use on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the world began to see the horror of the bombs.  Not that conventional bombing people wasn't bad enough, but one airplane can now deliver the power of the entire airforce.

In 1957, the Russians launched the worlds first artificial satallite.  This implies that the Russions can launch an atomic bomb to the US or anywhere around the world without launching an airplane.  Thus started the arms race.  We developed newer, more econimic, and more effiecient methods of killing the entire world. it was called MAD or mutually assured destruction (pushed heavily by JFK's Sec of defence, R McNamara). Why?  It was believed that starting a war would mean the end of the world. The fruits of our labor would be ashes in our mouths.  It wasn't worth going to war or winning it. so why start the war? So people gathered around and realized that the only thing the nukes were good for was to keep wars from happening- but only Nuclear wars.  This is why we have so many conventional wars going on.  But even since then, we and the soviets have developed tactical nukes like neutron bombs.  the half life is so short, the radiation will living stuff but the city will remain intact and safe to enter in month.  Whe we started the Anti ICBM programs, warheads became multiple re-entry vehicles (MRVs) sort of like Nuclear Cluster bombs.

And oh.  some weapons are demilitarized and put into reactors for generating electricity.  Our stockpile has diminished greatly since the Berlin Wall came down.  But since then real crazy people in the middle east may want to purchase the soviet materials since the rusky's are hurting for money.

Answer 4

alot of the use of nukes is threatening but originaly nukes design was for using (originaly supposed to be used against germany actually though at the time the germans were also developing them)

Answer 5

Both and it really scares me. If america has nukes they will get to other places who knows who that will be. I really think the world needs do something about them because what comes from a nuke?

Answer 6

nukes are mostly made to scare people. I mean who wouldn't be. I am. Any way they are mostly used to scare people but in some events they have been used as you probably know.

Answer 7

Nukes were originally created by the US because the Germans during WWII were trying to create one of their own...one of the programs they had going was Heavy Water in Norway.  The bombs were originally designed to be used.  Because they were so difficult to make and so intricate, there were only very few created at first.  

After we dropped the bomb and ended world war 2, the US and the USSR went back to hating each other.  As a result, the USSR stole the plans of making a bomb, both sides developed the ICBM which created the Space Race, which created proliferation, which resulted in us almost killing each other (cuban missile crisis), which resulted in detente, which resulted in the US almost losing the cold war, which resulted in reagan, which resulted in the USSR collapse.  That;s very basic.  

Answer 8

Nukes were originally made to be used.  That was evident with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  When Hiroshima was bombed, that was the first nuke made that was not used for testing.  The Nagasaki bombing was the second nuke made not for testing.

The original intention of making nukes was indeed to use them, however, once the devastating long-term effects were known, they became more of a deterrent, because leaders knew it would lead to their own destruction, too.  The United States and the Soviet Union would test their newest versions to show the other their power (some argue that that's also what happened with Hiroshima and Nagasaki).  A good example of testing for deterrence was the nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, where a single United States nuke detonated 90 feet or so under water took out an entire fleet of naval ships (captured Japanese ships and retired United States ships).

The nuclear stockpiles were made to scare the other side.  The thought was that the stockpiles would prevent either side from directly attacking the other.  It seemed to have worked.

For launching nukes, in the United States, at least, the President and a military officer each have a key, and they both need to be used at the same time in conjunction with a password to be punched in to a computer for the doomsday scenario (all nukes be launched) to occur.  For a single nuke to be used, I think that's just a matter of the order being given.

Knowing the effects of nukes nowadays, only an insane idiot would use one.  Luckily, the leaders of North Korea and the United States each meet just one of those qualifications.  Putin and Medvedev in Russia are neither.

Answer 9

If only one country had nukes ......the rest of us would be at a serious disadvantage ......

There is no realistic way to put the "egg back in the shell"..... so we must learn to live with them

...."made to be used" ?

Unfortunately......if Iran does not back off......nukes will probably be used this year and you will have your answer  

Answer 10

well only two people know the launch codes and i believe they only know half of it and you also need approval and two keys turned simultaneously and they are mainly used as a scare tactic because if we had nuclear war whoever called it would probbably die

Answer 11

Both.

Answer 12

The world didn't know what fear was until the bombs went off over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Since warheads require weapons-grade material AND the ability to send it over to your enemies, few countries, let alone people, have that ability. North Korea may have nuclear capability, but how are they going to get it beyond their borders? Donkeys?

As far as numbers go, it's like having big muscles. It's all about intimidation.

Answer 13

The answer is yes.

Answer 14

To defend civilised countries. (US, UK, Israel, etc.)

Answer 15

There can never be enough nukes. The ratio is really 1 nuke per big city. So there may be about 45,000 nukes available but that means a lot of cities are not going to be hit

Answer 16

Well this is all I can say if anyone ever uses a nuke in a hostile situation, then all the nukes will be used or at least as many as it takes to destroy the world. It is the only war fought with a button and it is impossible to win such a war. another word for nuclear war is armageddon. The world would cease to exist that is a reality. The reason so many exist is simple if we have more than you we are more intimidating.  

Answer 17

They are made by a bunch of girly men who can't use their fists for a real one-on-one fight.

Republicans disgust me.

Answer 18

Nukes.  They are made to scare others into submission, but not to be used.  

You are right about the number, it wouldn't actually nuke everywhere but it would spread enough radiation and dust to kill everything.

In order for a nuke to be launched (here in the United States anyway) an executive order must be made which requires a code not kept with the nukes but in locked safes that only key people in the government have access to.  On top of this, two people at the nuke must also turn a key simultaniously on opposite sides of a room (to prevent one person from being able to do it even if he got both keys).  At this point the nuke would be launched.  The major powers in the world however are smart enough to realize that the death toll is to great to make this a viable option in any war.  The fear of nuclear attack comes from smaller nations and from terrorist organizations that would not be afraid of nuking someone.  There is noone to retaliate against.  This is why nuclear weapons in the Middle East is such a problem and must be stopped at any and all cost.

Answer 19

The deadly toys?

Neither.

After having it.

Don't know what is it purpose out there.

Having restless nights with nightmares in having it.

While others cried out " Gimme, Gimme" too

What a bunch of educated idiots we have out there?

With self lack of knowledge too.

In messing up with science and mathematics in time.

Even with  landmark glarings under the sun, moon and stars, even on cloudy and rainy days too in Russia.

The mystery will be expose in time.

Luke 6.39-40,41-45,46-49

What do you think?

Answer 20

To keep equilibrium amongst he super powers.

Answer 21

They look pretty inside silos.  

Answer 22

I do not know what wepons will be fought in WW3,

But WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones.

Answer 23

Hi

Well I think its a male thing everyone wants more than the other country even though they have enough to destroy their enemies .

Well the Atom bomb was used twice by America so we can't say they have never been used . However these days i think they are more to scare countries than to be used , because if you rain a load of nukes on a country the fall out could travel around the world and you would end up killing a lot of your own people .

AS for nutters well in stable countries there is a group of government and military people that control the weapons , its not just one person with a big red button on their desk like they show in the movies .

However countries run by dictators are a big threat , as there are few if any people to challenge a suicidal decision ,

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Answer 24

  nukes are for showing a show of force by each country, but no one man can fire the nukes.  it takes several

Answer 25

having a nuke is like a safety policy or insurance its like saying if you attack me im gnna nuke you they are only used in extreme curcum stances tho like in a world war and you are losing

Answer 26

I think you already know the answer

Answer 27

JFA. Yeah, real civilised countries. The US was born out of a war of insurrection and then virtually wiped out the indigenous peoples of America. Israel owes its existence to the murder of British peacekeeping troops and ethnic cleansing from 1948 onwards.