NationStates Jolt Archive

I have in my short time noticed many instances on the forums where people have used WMDs without researching them, or their effects. As this usually results in an OOC spam fest or even a forum fire, I have decided to write this guide to describe the effects of these weapons, how to use them in RP’ing, and what not to do with them.

1) Nuclear Weapons (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13257650&postcount=2)
2) Chemical Weapons (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13257650&postcount=3)
3) Biological Weapons (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13257650&postcount=4)
4) Radiological Weapons (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13257650&postcount=5)
5) EMP devices (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13257650&postcount=6)
6) Orbital Munitions (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13260287&postcount=18)
7) Antimatter... (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13260287&postcount=19)
8) Plasma Munitions (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13260287&postcount=20)
9) Cyber WMDs (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13260287&postcount=25)

1) Nuclear weapons – The Original Noob Weapon

A nuclear weapon is the ultimate weapon in terms of power and destruction available in modern warfare. Using Uranium 235/Plutonium in possible combination with a source of deuterium, a relatively small atomic device can produce effects millions of times its size if TNT was used.

When a nuclear bomb is detonated, damage is caused in five different ways to enemy installations:
- The initial shockwave, in which the change in pressure causes a pulse of energy to travel at near the speed of sound through the air. This will smash down most structures as well as uprooting most trees. Near the epicentre, no buildings will stand, the destruction decreasing away from the epicentre. Not commonly known is that the shockwave causes a vacuum to be formed around the area it covers, meaning that the implosion of air as a result of the atmosphere can cause even more destruction in the area.

- The heat wave, which is the most common cause of initial deaths in a nuclear explosion. Conflagration of people near the epicentre is complete, with little more than shadows being left. Behind that, the incidences of burns decreases, from third degree burns down to minor first degree burns on the edge of the affected area.

- The initial radiation burst, which travels at the same speed as the heat wave. The doses produced are not likely to kill those in cover, but those out in the open can possibly take exposure levels enough to kill them when burned as well. The radiation produced is mostly in the form of gamma radiation, though in neutron bombs neutrons are produced. In a neutron bomb, it is this that causes it to be thought of as killing all those in the area.

- The lingering radiation caused by the explosion, known as “fallout”, is very dangerous for all those in and possibly outside the area. In the area where the nuclear bomb has caused damage, the fallout is the killer of the people. Causing the destruction of the bone marrow and damage to internal organs, most survivors with burns will die when given treatment due to secondary infections.

- The least understood by most people is the EMP: Electromagnetic Pulse. As the massive amount of radiation is released in the initial burst, it causes ionisation in the air. As a result electrical energy can carry through the air itself, causing damage to all unprotected electronics in the area.
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Now we know these, we can explain the tactics behind nuclear weapons.
- Mostly, nuclear weapons are used as a deterrent against invasion: invade us and we destroy you. Even a single nuclear weapon can be considered a deterrent: if used in retaliation against a major population centre, the results would be disastrous.

- If used against a country in attack, they can be attacked tactically or strategically. By tactically, we use nuclear weapons on small scale for elimination of small enemy targets such as military bases, enemy armies and naval fleets. These sorts of nuclear charges are carried on cruise missiles, or fired by smaller devices such as artillery, mortars or even a nuclear recoil-less rifle, able to destroy bridges and large buildings.

- By strategically, we use nuclear weapons to completely destroy a nation’s infrastructure, known occasionally in the trade as “glassing”. This method, while complete in its destruction of the enemy, is not without its cons.

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Now, there are some points to make about nuclear weapons, in how not to use them:

- If you are going to use a nuclear weapon, the maximum yield is 100 megatons that can be fitted onto a bomber. After that, the plane needed is unwieldy in size and lack of armour so that it can carry such weights. Also, the minimum size of a nuclear explosive is 50 tonnes, in such thing as a SADM. Below that, and critical masses can not be created inside the device.

- If you use a nuclear weapon, you have to think about the fallout: what will it do to surrounding nations? What will it do to global radiation levels? How will your troops land in a radioactive area? These are all big things often ignored, but very notable in the fact of collateral damage and land loss. Even if you do not have hundreds of people dying of acute radiation syndrome, you will have hundreds dying from cancers in later life or much earlier than expected.

- If you enter a prolonged nuclear engagement, do not expect there to be no ill effects: as well as the massive increase in global radiation levels, you will have the problem of a nuclear winter. This is when the dust thrown up by all the nuclear weapons reflects sunlight out of the atmosphere, thus causing global temperature reductions.

- If you use a nuclear weapon, you may be attacked by other nations in retaliation, possibly using nuclear weapons themselves. You may destroy your enemy nation, but be completely destroyed yourself.

- If an ICBM comes flying at you, don't expect it to be shot down easily. Firstly, you won't know where the target is, meaning that such things are difficult. Secondly, you may actually trigger a nuclear explosion, which will cause damage.

- If an ICBM explodes very high above your nation, expect for your nation to suffer server electronic disruption: the EMP from a 1 megaton warhead could wipe out electronics in most of the US.

- If you use nuclear weapons in space, remember that the only effects you will get are the heat wave and the direct radiation: with no medium of transferral in space, all you will have is a sphere of heat and gamma irradiation around the area. You won't have an EMP, as there will be no ionisation of anything.
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To sum it all up, nuclear weapons are best used as deterrents against enemy attack, but after that level of intention will result in many negative effects on your nation.

2) Chemical Weapons – The First WMDs

Chemical weapons are used for two main effects: for casualty effect and demoralisation effect. They can be grouped into two types: non-lethal and lethal.
The lethal chemical agents can be divided further into persistent and non-persistent. Following this is a list of the different chemical agents likely to be encountered, and a description of their properties and effects.

- Chlorine is one of the first chemical agents to have been used on the battlefield. It is dispersed mainly as a cloud gas from cylinders, and works upon the victim by restricting air uptake in the alveoli in the lungs and inflaming the lung tissue. Effects aren’t immediate, and usually occur during physical exertion. When this happens, the lung tissue releases large amounts of fluid that drowns the victim. It can easily be stopped by a soaked rag or a normal charcoal-filter gasmask. The gas usually lasts for ten minutes before dispersing into non-lethal concentrations.

- Phosgene is another lung injurant gas that is much more toxic, requiring concentrations as small as 0.02mg per litre of air to cause death. It also lasts for minutes, yet can penetrate a soaked rag or a gas mask with a poor filter.

- Hydrogen Cyanide is a toxic gas that is non-persistent. However, it works not by injuring the lungs but by disrupting enzyme reactions inside cells in the body, causing death. It can be held off by a normal charcoal gasmask, but requires a filter change every few minutes.

- Mustard Gas and Lewisite are blister gases that are primarily intended to cause casualties but not usually death. They work on contact with the skin, by causing cell damage as they permeate into the bloodstream. Once inside the body, they breakdown to form arsenic salts and hydrogen chloride, that can eventually cause death. The blisters however do not appear until between half an hour and 4 hours after exposure. If they enter the body, via contaminated water/food or breathing in the gas, they cause blistering to the stomach lining and the lungs that can also prove fatal. They also cause acute conjunctivitis with the victim’s eyes turning red and then black as they bleed internally. Protection is afforded by a full biochem warfare suit and gasmask. Both gases can last up to a week in the open, so are known as persistent gases.

- Sarin is a non-persistent nerve agent that works by blocking the nervous system signals, resulting in rapid death. It requires a full biochem warfare suit and powerful gasmask/ oxygen supply to be protected from. If a subject is affected by the nerve agent, death can be averted by injection of a separate chemical, available to most ambulance crews. The gas can be removed form an area by spraying it with sodium hydroxide.

- VX is one of the series of V-agent nerve gases. It is persistent, lasting up to a week in areas. It causes death in doses as low as 0.001mg applied to the skin. It can be protected from by full biochem warfare equipment.

- Rostichok agents are nerve gases that are non-persistent and “binary”: they require two chemicals that are non-toxic to make them, and once reacted together form these agents. They require the best of protection against, and can not be detected by any current detectors.
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There are also non-lethal agents, all of which are non-persistent, and can be divided into two groups: lachrymatory agents (tear gases) and mind alterants. Examples of these are:

- The C –series of gases, known as CS gas, CN gas (Mace spray) and CR gas. Each lasts for only a few minutes, and cause intense pain to the eyes and irritation to the respiratory passages. They are good for incapacitating enemies, yet have one problem: if they combust, they can form cyanide, which is lethal. They can also be used accidentally in toxic concentrations. Protection is given by a normal gas mask.

- BZ gas, known also as agent-15, is a gas that causes effects upon the nervous system and brain, which render soldiers unfit for battle. It requires protection with a full biochem warfare suit and mask, and is non-lethal in most doses. Its effects occur between 30 minutes and 24 hours after exposure, and include hallucinations, blindness, loss of muscle control, dry skin and alterations to the mind, such as the subject abandoning all social restraints and resorting to inappropriate behaviour.
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This is all very well, but how do you deploy them? There are many ways:

- The classic cloud attack, where the gas is released from cylinders and carried by the wind over the enemy. Unreliable and easy to spot by the enemy, they are not very efficient.

- The bombardment, where artillery is used to deposit the gas over the enemy. This is sudden and results in high casualties, but requires available artillery, and is not useful against mobile troops.

- Air dispersal, where a plane sprays the gas over an area. Useful for mass coverage, but has a potential for collateral damage.

- In conjunction with a smokescreen, to hide their true purpose. The enemy will therefore be surprised, and then will use their gasmasks every time a smokescreen is used, thus demoralising the enemy and making them more immobile without the need for a real agent.

- By troops in the form of grenades, mortars and rifle grenades, which while they are useful at a troop level, require specialist training and chemical warfare equipment.
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Now how not to use chemical weapons:

- Do not claim to have developed an “ubergas” that kills everything and everyone regardless of protection: it is godmoding, and also, what happens if it is used against your troops?

- Do not use the advanced nerve agents unless you RP their delivery: therefore, nothing can be debated about in their use.

- Do not arm all your troops with chemical weapons: they will also have to carry gas masks etc., and thus will be reduced in effectively. Use only a small number of troops or specialised divisions.

- The agents don’t last forever, even if they are persistent.

3) Biological Agents

Another weapon designed to incapacitate troops, biological weapons are notable for long latent period between exposure and illness, and their cost to the enemy they are unleashed upon. Unlike chemical agents, biological agents such as anthrax last for many years, and decontamination can be a very long procedure. Therefore, when using these, you have to know the disadvantages:

- The possibility of contaminating your troops, who cross over an infected area or accidentally release the agent.

- The danger of the agents spreading to civilian populations, and into neutral countries.

- The possible retaliation.

Protection can be given in a biochem warfare suit and gas mask, or just a gasmask, depending on the disease.
Now for the how not to use biological agents:

- Don’t arm all your troops with biological weapons, as they will have to be protected and specially trained.

- Don’t assume the weapon will not spread: it will do.

- Do not claim to have genetically engineered a superdisease, unless you can give lots of information about it and make it generally ‘realistic’

- Decontamination is expensive, so don’t just say “oh, I decontaminated it”. It requires the complete decontamination of all vegetation, the sterilisation of the topsoil and possible destruction of everything in the vicinity.

- A fuel-air bomb will not destroy a biological agent in an area: it will only destroy the people, and not the spores that inhabit the soil and all the matter in the area.

4) Radiological weapon – Dirty…

A radiological weapon is designed only for one thing: terror. While it is likely to cause serious incapacitation of troops via radiation sickness, it is designed to increase the chance of cancer in the area to high levels, and can only be used against a civilian population most effectively. It only consists of a bomb with impregnations of something such as cobalt-40, so can be manufactured easily by terrorists.
However:
- Radioactive impregnation of a bomb will not cause an increase in the power of the weapon: i.e. not a bigger bang.

- Radioactive weapons last a long time, but not forever. The population effects will though: while Cobalt 40 has a half-life of 90 days, so is practically insignificant within a year, the genetic damage in a population is dramatic.

- Only mass use of radiological weapons will guarantee massive death rate by radiation sickness.

- The population damage will cause hatred for your nation by the one you used the weapons against forever, due to the incidences of birth defects that will be higher than the rest of the world, as well as cancers and the like.

- The fallout in a mass war using these weapons can affect other nations, such as your own.

5) EMP weapons
An EMP device is one that aims to achieve the effect electrically of a nuclear weapon without having to use a nuclear device. These would consist of a capacitor bank, a large magnetic coil and other devices. While these weapons are dangerous to unshielded electronics, you have to consider:

- An EMP has a limited range: the sort of one that would fit into a cruise missile would only be likely to cause damage in a radius of 3 miles.

- An EMP has a level of destruction towards electronics as follows: microchips (the most susceptible), transistors, valves and solenoids/motors (the least susceptible). While motors are likely to be damaged near the epicentre of the blast, transistors on the edge of the radius of effect may not be damaged.

- EMP shielding is quite simple: a faraday cage will provide protection, as will ceramic armour such as that upon tanks. Therefore, a modern army is not likely to be severely effected by EMP.

- Old-school weapons of war such as MiGs don’t use complicated transistors and instead use valves, so are much less likely to be effected by EMP than a Eurofighter, say.

- These weapons can kill humans: a pulse at the right time will stop the heart from beating. They are therefore possibly lethal weapons.

Just as an FYI, the concept of nuclear winter has mostly been discredited in mainstream science. Volcanic eruptions toss far more crap into the air than nukes ever could and they havn't caused any of the expected effects.

You also may wish to add a section on kinetic munitions such as godrods, since I see a lot of people treating these like nukes with no radiation (when in fact, they work quite differently).

Also, re radiological weapons, dirty bombs are not that dangerous; they are literally more or less a terror weapon. You're not going to spread more junk around than you would from a ground burst from a nuke.

OOC-->

I believe that biological weapons were the first WMDs, not chemical. I'm referring to catapulting rotten meat onto a city under siege. Or even poisoning one's well or drinking water with rotten products.

OOC-->

I believe that biological weapons were the first WMDs, not chemical. I'm referring to catapulting rotten meat onto a city under siege. Or even poisoning one's well or drinking water with rotten products.

OOC: I doubt it. It's always nice to smear venom/poison on your weapons during war, to insure that the enemy dies from even a small wound. Poinsoning wells would be chemical. Biological is only those things that cause disease, and the earliest biological weapon could think of is the Black Plague hitting the Italian traders in the Middle East. Which they then carried to Europe. Anyways, this is all irrelevant.

(( Very good thread. :cool: ))

OOC: I doubt it. It's always nice to smear venom/poison on your weapons during war, to insure that the enemy dies from even a small wound. Poinsoning wells would be chemical. Biological is only those things that cause disease, and the earliest biological weapon could think of is the Black Plague hitting the Italian traders in the Middle East. Which they then carried to Europe. Anyways, this is all irrelevant.


OOC-->

Well if someone really needs to know, guess they could always ask some historian dude. I hadn't even considered the poison on weapons. Just remembered some debate about that in one of my classes and tried to remember the arguments, but you're right... not really relevant here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosively_pumped_flux_compression_generator

Example of EMP weapons.

This may just be me bitching but as someone who loves being the avant-garde for things like this, the Informatic weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Exotic weapons of mass destruction.

With a powerful botnet, or a cluster of supercomputers I can begin a massive spamming attack on an enemy's servers forcing them to shut down their outside connections which can crush their mobility and flexibility. Then by detecting outgoing traffic I can then send more stuff through the frequencies and begin crashing entire networks with too much data.

Microsatellites that latch directly onto enemy satellites and begin stealing packets straight out of them and sending back bad packets. This will result in them having to rely on a hard line connections.

Of course most of this is a concentrated jamming campaign and disinformation campaign. If well RPed and executed this can destroy an enemy's fighting spirit and communications ability. It is well known that being well connected wins wars these days.

As for the Exotic Weapons of Mass Destruction they include:

Antimatter Weapons: Completely impractical in MT/PMT and are reserved for FT engagements.

-Antimatter consists of antiparticles, which are the particles that come across as the byproduct of our physics equations also having negative answers. At first they were thought to be a mathematic burp but then our equations held out and there are the bizzaro versions of normal particles. Following Einstein's E = MC^2, the energy produced by forcing these two particles together is enormous. However, producing them is very hard to do in significant amounts because they require magnetic shielding and must reside in a matterless environment, a true vaccum. This is near impossible and if we combined all the antimatter we have ever created with normal matter we'd light a single light bulb for a few minutes.

This has a byproduct of deadly radiation and is expensive beyond belief.

The second is more practical and are called Plasma Yield Weapons.

Plasma is a highly charged gas, and is the fourth state of matter beyond solid, liquid and gas. Imagine a gas so hot all its electrons peel off in the heat.

When Plasma is created it is extremely hot and expands rapidly in air. This creates a shockwave and a pop. It is similar to nuclear weapons in that sense, without the nasty radiation. However, creating plasma is a problem. An experiment by the US military is the Pulsed Energy Projectile, which fires an invisible infrared laser beam which evaporates the top layer of the target, creating a plasma, which promptly explodes, making a small shockwave and a pop.

It currently weighs around 230 kg, will probably be mounted, uses a chemical laser and has a range of 2km. Theoretically they can kill. This is technically a less-than lethal implementation. With a more powerful laser you can make a weapon that will create plasma on its target's "skin" and pop it.

A more common usage is taking advantage of how much plasma explodes when it contacts air, and releasing it as a weapon like a nuke. A small sample of it, contained in a powerful magnetic field will expand rapidly once the field is turned off, either deliberately or by impact and will create a powerful shockwave. The problem is that the powerful magnetic field necessary to contain significant amounts of plasma must be powered by something. Either an onboard generator producing a lot of electricity, or a very dense battery or supercapacitor bank. This reserves it almost exclusively to a missile implementation and limits its size as most of the space has to be taken by magnetic shielding and electricity generators. Artillery would put too much acceleration on the banks to survive and will probably cause the plasma to damage the weapon during acceleration, possibly destroying the gun in the process.

Finally the final way to make a Plasma Yield Warhead is with a bank of lasers focused on a particularly useful material, and upon nearing the target it creates the plasma on site, annihilating itself and anything around it. Of course this also requires a lot of electricity.

Of course plasma has the advantage of not bathing an area in radiation, but is hideously expensive like everything else in the exotic category.

To expand on Informatic Weapons of Mass Destruction is the example of the Storm Worm and its associated Storm Botnet.

While the Storm Worm isn't anything new, the way it established itself as a botnet is unusual. Storm is very defensive, and was designed to protect itself. After infection, it would not contact a central server, but instead from an ad-hoc mesh network with other infected machines. Currently they infect anywhere from 1 million to up to 50 million machines, and currently surpass many supercomputers in capability.

The comparison is not at all fair, as the botnet is more like 50 million guerrilla snipers versus a nuclear bomb (supercomputer). But by not using a central server, Storm is able to defend itself flexibly. If someone begins working their way down the net trying to find out where Storm is, Storm responds not by directly DDoSing the target but by asking computers not being scanned to DDoS the target.

DoS Attack means Denial of Service attack and is perhaps the most basic and widely used attack. Sometimes it is also called Slashdotting because exposure on Slashdot can overwhelm servers. A DoS attack is the equivalent of jamming, by sending too many connection requests the server cannot keep up, and begins to lag. Soon it will shut down completely as it overloads with connections.

A DDoS is a Distributed Denial of Service attack and is when multiple computers begin doing this. That way a server not only has to keep up with the connections and ban ones just trying to jam it, it has to keep track of all those attempting to attack it which results in an extra burden.

This really is a great thread, and well laid out.

Don't forget to mention how difficult it is for the target of ICBM's to be determined. Currently a lot of (RL) research is going into destroying missile in the boost phase while it would be nearly impossibly to tell the target of a missile at said time.

As for nuclear winter note that while it may not be an issue in a reasonable nuclear attack, many nations have nuclear arsenals many times that of Russia or America at is peak and they (NS nations) have been known to employ sufficient nuclear weapons to destroy the entire surface of the earth many many times over...

Realistically any large scale nuclear attack would probably cause any war to spread to a huge number of other nations and result in MAD for a most of the world.

Also you should note that very high altitude, very high yield nuclear explosion could take out most of the unshielded (advanced) electronics in a nation as large as the US.

Leafistan, why exactly would any of my military computers be connected to the global internet?

I'll add the "exotic" ones tomorrow: I have to be honest got fed up with plasma warheads, which to be honest are RP'd in a spectacularly poor fashion, as well as... ANTIMATTER!!!!

Thanks for the pointer about the web virus... though that does not necessarily count, I'll see about adding it.

6) Orbital Munitions

One of my banes are the acclaimed "god rods" and orbital munitions, that use their kinetic energy to destroy targets on the ground.

When an orbital kinetic munition is deployed, the following effects occur on impact:

- A large crater is blown out of the ground by the energy within the munition, with parts becoming molten from the heat of the impact.

- A large area around the impact zone is flattened due to the overpressure: the shock of the projectile coming through the atmosphere produces a change in airpressure, causing massive damage in a localised area.

- The heat of the projectile flying through the atmosphere will cause a fireball, which with small munitions will only cause a warm sensation, yet with much larger ones will cause burns within the area of the overpressure.

- The seismic shock from the impact can also cause damage to buildings in the area.

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While a projectile 1m in diameter can raise a crater 80m wide (if made from tungsten), there are many downsides to this sort of weapon:

- It is VERY EXPENSIVE: you have to consider costs of design, launching the platform for the weapon, launching the fuel for the platform, launching the platform projectiles, having personnel dedicated to guiding the projectile... it all adds up. A weapons based platform is likely to cost $billions.

- The projectile is hard to guide once in the atmosphere: the buffeting of the atmosphere can cause a projectile to move off course by 100s of metres.

- If you are not careful, the projectile will actually melt before impact or breakup into a shower of fragments, giving a crater field of small craters instead of a single massive effect. The airburst though is still likely to work, if the projectile is large enough.

- If you are using a rod-shaped projectile for bunker-busting, IT WONT WORK. A projectile of that sort will hit the earth and raise a small crater, and just leave a clean hole through the bunker. While this may compromise CBR defences, it is unlikely to cause any major damage (unless you are ridiculously lucky).

- With projectiles above 50m in diameter, you are likely to cause massive amounts of collateral damage, whether it be from the heat burst, the seismic shock or the airburst.

- The airburst is LOUD: a 1m projectile will be heard from about 200 miles away by those with good hearing. The seismic shock is also easily recordable, so it is NOT a stealthy weapon.

- A mass bombardment will result in a similar effect to a nuclear winter, with masses of dust thrown up into the atmosphere. You also have the problem of dust in small scale impacts covering cities and fields, causing respiritory diseases and crop damage.

- What happens when your fancy weapons satellite is brought down by an air-orbit missile or a suicide satellite? You will have to invest in a very costly defence system, hundreds of times more expensive than a single missile.

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Overall, all I can say about orbital munitions is BE CAREFUL. Do not use them unless you know exactly what you are doing, and exactly what the effects are. Otherwise, stick to conventional weapons.

7) Antimatter - NO!

Antimatter weapons are not meant for MT or even PMT warfare. Not because it is too farfetched, but because of the danger and cost. Consider this: to create a gram of antimatter, you would require a power input that would equal the same amount of electrical energy produced in America for about 20 years... how will you afford the $trillions to set up and run them?

Second, how are you going to stop it getting into contact with matter? A magnetic field suspending the substance in a vacuum is fine, but what happens when you run out of power? What happens if you drop it? A small amount of antimatter (about 100g) could devastate most of France (sorry any french people).

Finally, what are you going to do when your lavish plant for manufacturing antimatter (that will cover a few square kilometres) is subject to a nuclear strike? Or even conventional bombing?

So remember kids, if you are offered antimatter in an MT/PMT setting... JUST SAY NO!!!

8) Plasma Warheads

What I hate about these devices, the most commonly Rp'd ones I've seen in terms of WMDs, is that no-one actually understands how one of these works.

What you actually need to create a "plasma explosion" are are source of ionisation to turn the target into a plasma, and for the plasma bubble then to collapse. This would take the form of a laser, or of a nuclear explosion.

In the latter, the plasma effect would be completely irrelevant, as the destruction produced will outweigh the plasma effects.

However, in the former, a battery of lasers can be used to create a massive bubble of plasma, that produces a large shockwave when popped. Or, a bubble of plasma is created and magnetically held together until it reaches a target or is manually shutdown.

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However, there is a list that could span for miles that concerns their disadvantages, which can be summed up quite easily:

- The entire array of lasers will cost $billions, making nuclear devices look much more inviting...

- If surpassed by being dropped in a bomb or fired from artillery, the magnetic field required to hold it as a plasma is immense, and completely impractical in the field.

- You need a very big bubble of plasma to cause destruction nearing that of a nuclear bomb of a much smaller size. Thus, they should not even be classified as WMDs.

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I know some people will try and prove me wrong in my explanation, but until someone gives me a good explanation of a plasma weapon design that WORKS, they stay on the list of weapons to AVOID AT ALL COSTS, lest you wish for OOC spamming.

I'll simplify things for you.

Plasma weapons, quite simply, do not work outside of FT, no matter what anyone around here tells you. The only reason anyone uses them is because they read some Dale Brown novels and thought "whee!".

Also with regards to dust and so forth from kinetic munitions, that's only a problem with ridiculously gigantic ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter_weapon

From this article:

There is considerable skepticism within the physics community about the viability of antimatter weapons. According to an article on the website of the CERN laboratories, which produces antimatter on a regular basis, "There is no possibility to make antimatter bombs for the same reason you cannot use it to store energy: we can't accumulate enough of it at high enough density. (...) If we could assemble all the antimatter we've ever made at CERN and annihilate it with matter, we would have enough energy to light a single electric light bulb for a few minutes."

Bumpage for some users to read it... (Those mucking around with Gens Romane I am looking at!!!)

Just as an FYI, the concept of nuclear winter has mostly been discredited in mainstream science.

No it hasn't. In fact it was re-affirmed almost one year ago exactly: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061211090729.htm

And that's just a small-scale conflict with low-yield warheads.

9) Cyber WMDs

In the modern age of the internet, where everything is linked via a massive network, a malicious program can bring a nation to its knees. Enter the computer virus. In all its forms, from worm to trojan, it is designed only for destruction and accessing of information.

A modern nation could possibly lose its entire infastructure overnight. And how? There are two methods that can effectivly be used to cause mass damage to a computer network:

- A simple virus, that spreads via e-mail or forcefully infiltrates computers, and then causes damage to that computer (e.g wipes the hard drive).

- A botnet virus, perhaps the most deadly. After infecting numerous computers, it crashes other computers by sending out spam e-mails from each that can't be blocked with a spam filter. Therefore, the targeted site/server crashes. In this way, a nation's commercial and infastructural servers could be shut down.
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However, there are some rules you must abide to when you use a virus:

- Though at first they will have no defence, a sample of the program allows firewalls to be raised: thus, the virus will not be allowed to enter the computer unless it gains access with the owner's consent.

- The proliferation of anti-viral software means that after the first wave, systems can mount a counter-attack against the virus by destroying it, thus making the virus unusable after the first attack.

- You won't hit all systems: some companies and the military run on seperate networks unconnected to the internet, so it would have to infiltrated in using some sort of secret agent or traitor. This makes trying to get a virus in much harder.

Most of all, research before you use a virus.

I suspect that this won't get very many hits, as there are few responsible users out there - the rest are one-sentence world domination non-IC n00bs, we've all had our share of them.

Possibly sticky or perpetual bump.....to try and cure those N00Bs of their appetite for NOOKs. If not, I shall kindly walk in with the ignore gun.

I'd kindly walk in with a real gun.

Okay, quick question: viability of suitcase nukes?

Okay, quick question: viability of suitcase nukes?

Nonexistent.

The smallest nuclear weapon would still need a very large sea chest to fit into.

7) Antimatter - NO!

Antimatter weapons are not meant for MT or even PMT warfare.

LOL

MT, no. PMT, why the hell not. Read Czardas' quick tech summary and you'll easily see that they are PMT.

8) Plasma Warheads

What I hate about these devices, the most commonly Rp'd ones I've seen in terms of WMDs, is that no-one actually understands how one of these works.

And obviously, neither do you. Leave the plasma weapons to FT. Period.

6) Orbital Munitions

snip

Some helpful things on God-Rods.
Sure a godrod has the energy of a small nuke, but the nuke is expending it's energy over a huge area, while a god rod is hitting a small spot.

Think HE shell vs. APFSDS, APFSDS has the same if not more energy, but shooting it so it hits near an infantry squad won't kill them. Both a nuke and a god-rod will destroy a runway/bunker, but the god rod won't destroy the city/base around it.

A GOD ROD WILL NOT LEVEL A CITY, not even more then 1 city block.

http://www.army-technology.com/projects/thaad/
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/38112.pdf

THAAD and other KEMs should be able to break up/deflect a godrod so that it hits the school across the city but not the military base.

Energy density of "godrod" ranges between 2 times and theoretical maximum of 8 times TNT, with typical number of 4-4.5 times TNT, corresponding to 6km/s reentry velocity.
In other words, it's about 2.5-3 times better than pure modern explosive, or 4 times better than conventional bomb, per ton of weight. It's not to mention that "godrod" doesn't really work as high explosive, and only deals damage through the material it touches. In military terms it is similar to lacking brisance. Specifically, it doesn't actually explode with gases, only throws material around. It's essentially throwing rocks into the ground, and, in both cases, most energy just goes into the ground.

That's for about $10 million per ton delivery cost.

So a 50 million dollar "godrod" would probably destroy a building, not even a block. If it hits a street, it will blow a crater there, break windows around, shake somewhat, that's all - inherent AP capability doesn't favor city destruction.

And yeah, pinging and spamming military computers won't work as any smart government wouldn't keep them connected to the world wide web.

Thanks for the advice on godrods. I have to point out however that:

1) With antimatter, I doubt that you could easily manufacture it in a PMT setting due to its horrendous cost of about $25 billion per gram in an optimum manufacturing facility. Therefore, antimatter would seem completely unreliable and instead, nuclear weapons will most likely be used.

However, in a PMT setting, you could use $25 million worth to power a pure fusion bomb... it still is very expensove and completely impractical.

Another pointer is that it releases half of its energy in neutrinos, so you only really get half of the energy that is possible to be released.

2) Read the rest of the article about plasma warheads, please.

Interesting compilation, to say the least. I can't say much myself, but I'll give credit where it's due.