And sorry, I see I wasn't clear about the precision delivery aspect.
While newer members of the nuclear club may not have the greatest in precision delivery, that capability is almost completely a matter of electronic technology. Which means it's getting easier and cheaper in the same way that our cheap smartphones eclipse yesterday's mega$ supercomputers. I'm sure IN is already there, probably PK as well. NK, not so much. Yet.
That in turn makes unoptimized weapons with only say, 5kT yield very useful. Such "tiny" yields diminish the horror factor associated with using nukes. 5kT is way more "imaginable" - it's only 250 truckloads of TNT (single big rig load of 40,000 lbs).
In short, precision delivery makes low yield (cheap) bombs useful. That diminishes the restraint underpinning MAD.
And sorry, I see I wasn't clear about the precision delivery aspect.
While newer members of the nuclear club may not have the greatest in precision delivery, that capability is almost completely a matter of electronic technology. Which means it's getting easier and cheaper in the same way that our cheap smartphones eclipse yesterday's mega$ supercomputers. I'm sure IN is already there, probably PK as well. NK, not so much. Yet.
That in turn makes unoptimized weapons with only say, 5kT yield very useful. Such "tiny" yields diminish the horror factor associated with using nukes. 5kT is way more "imaginable" - it's only 250 truckloads of TNT (single big rig load of 40,000 lbs).
In short, precision delivery makes low yield (cheap) bombs useful. That diminishes the restraint underpinning MAD.