The Cold War: a Military History
“Known as ‘static’ measures, these could be very misleading, but they were (and still are) all that was possible without access to the full range of facts and to computers with the processing power necessary to run the comparisons.
The raw yield of a nuclear weapon is expressed in terms of its equivalence to the energy released by high explosive (TNT). Raw yield is, however, not an accurate expression of the weapon’s effect, and to compare the total raw yields of weapons held by different nation...s is virtually meaningless. The first refined expression of war fighting performance is therefore equivalent megatonnage (EMT), which reflects a weapon’s potential to damage ‘soft’ or area targets.
For yields of 200 kT and above: EMT = yield2/3 For yields of less than 200 kT: EMT = yield1/2 Table 14.1 Equivalent megatonnage Table 14.1 shows a ‘law of diminishing returns’ operating, where, for example, a tenfold increase in raw yield from 1 MT to 10 MT results in less than a fivefold increase in EMT.MoreLess
The raw yield of a nuclear weapon is expressed in terms of its equivalence to the energy released by high explosive (TNT). Raw yield is, however, not an accurate expression of the weapon’s effect, and to compare the total raw yields of weapons held by different nation...s is virtually meaningless. The first refined expression of war fighting performance is therefore equivalent megatonnage (EMT), which reflects a weapon’s potential to damage ‘soft’ or area targets.
For yields of 200 kT and above: EMT = yield2/3 For yields of less than 200 kT: EMT = yield1/2 Table 14.1 Equivalent megatonnage Table 14.1 shows a ‘law of diminishing returns’ operating, where, for example, a tenfold increase in raw yield from 1 MT to 10 MT results in less than a fivefold increase in EMT.MoreLess
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