The Tsar Bomb

Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба, literally "Emperor-bomb") is the Western name for the largest, most powerful nuclear explosive ever detonated. Developed by the Soviet Union, the ~50 megaton bomb was codenamed Ivan (Russian: Иван) by its developers.

The bomb was tested on October 30, 1961 in Novaya Zemlya, an island in the Arctic Sea. The device was scaled down from its original design of 100 megatons to minimize nuclear fallout.

Codenamed "Ivan" during its development, the Tsar Bomba was not intended for use in warfare, but should be seen as an instance of the Cold War-era saber-rattling indulged in by the USSR and the USA.

The Tsar Bomba was a multi-stage hydrogen bomb with a yield of about 50 megatons (Mt). The initial three-stage (fission-fusion-fission) design was capable of approximately 100 Mt, but at a cost of much radioactive fallout. To limit fallout, the third stage, consisting of a uranium 238 fission tamper (which greatly amplifies the reaction by fissioning uranium atoms with fast neutrons from the fusion reaction), was replaced with one made of lead. This eliminated fast fission by the fusion-stage neutrons, so that approximately 97% of the total energy resulted from the fusion stage alone (as such, it was ironically one of the "cleanest" bombs ever created, generating a very low amount of fallout in respect to its yield). There was a strong incentive for this feature regression, as most of the fallout from a test of the bomb would fall on Soviet territory.

The components were designed by a team of physicists, headed by Academician Julii Borisovich Khariton, which included Andrei Sakharov, Victor Adamsky, Yuri Babayev, Yuri Smirnov, and Yuri Trutnev. Shortly after the Tsar Bomba was detonated, Sakharov began speaking out against nuclear weapons, which culminated in him becoming a full-blown dissident (see his Memoirs).

The Tsar Bomba was flown to its test site by a specially modified Tu-95 release plane which took off from an airfield in the Kola peninsula, flown by Major Andrei E. Durnotsev. The release plane was accompanied by a Tu-16 observer plane which took air samples and filmed the test; hence the movie stills that illustrate this and other articles about the test. Both aircraft were painted with a special reflective white paint to limit the heat damage from the test.

The bomb, weighing 27 tonnes, was so large (8 metres long by 2 metres in diameter) that the Tu-95 had to have its bomb bay doors and wing fuel tanks removed. The bomb was attached to an 800 kg fall retardation parachute, which gave the release and observer planes time to fly about 45 km from ground zero. Failing such retardation, the bomb would have either reached its planned detonation altitude soon enough to turn the test into a suicide mission, or crashed into the ground at high speed, with unpredictable results. The USA has fitted a few of its nuclear bombs with parachute retardation for the same reason. An apocryphal story has it that the fabrication of this parachute required so much raw nylon that the small Soviet nylon hosiery industry was noticeably disrupted.

The Tsar Bomba detonated at 11:32 a.m., located approximately at 73.85° N 54.50° E , over the Mityushikha Bay nuclear testing range (Sukhoy Nos Zone C), north of the Arctic Circle on Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea. The bomb was dropped from an altitude of 10,500 metres, and designed to detonate at a height of 4,000 m over the land surface (4,200 m over sea level) by barometric sensors.

The original USA estimate of the yield was 57 Mt, but since 1991 all Russian sources have stated its yield as "only" 50 Mt. Nonetheless, Khrushchev warned in a filmed speech to the Communist parliament of the existence of a 100 Mt bomb. The fireball touched the ground, reached nearly as high as the altitude of the release plane, and was seen 1,000 km away. The heat could have caused third degree burns at a distance of 100 km. The subsequent mushroom cloud was about 60 km high and 30–40 km wide. The explosion could be seen and felt in Finland, even breaking windows there.[citation needed] Atmospheric focusing caused blast damage up to 1,000 km away. The seismic shock created by the detonation was measurable even on its third passage around the earth.

Since 50 Mt is 2.1×1017 joules, the average power produced during the entire fission-fusion process, lasting around 3.9×10-8 seconds or 39 nanoseconds, was a power of about 5.3×1024 watts or 5.3 yottawatts. This is equivalent to approximately 1% of the energy output of the Sun during the same fraction of a second. The detonation of Tsar Bomba therefore qualifies, even to this day, as being the single most powerful device ever utilized throughout the history of humanity. By contrast, the largest weapon ever produced by the United States, the now-decommissioned B41, had a predicted maximum yield of 25 Mt, and the largest nuclear device ever tested by the USA (Castle Bravo) yielded 15 Mt. Note the recent comparison with asteroid impacts which may have formed the Chicxulub Crater and the Wilkes Land crater, both larger events by some six orders of magnitude.

Although powerful, the Tsar Bomba was too powerful to be used in wartimes. The weight of the weapon is also too heavy for any of the Soviet bomber to flew it to its destination without getting shot down. As the footage suggested, the bomb is nearly one quarter the length of the carrier. So, in te end, the bomb was deemed too impractical to be used against any nation. Here, a clip showing nuclear weapon tests.

The Demise of the Astro Club Chairman

What a day....

As the astro club chairman,it is my duty to oversee the installation of the new telescope. The day started with me sleeping until 11 and practically trying to home in my skill of command and conquer, Dawn of War and etc. Dark Crusade is coming out soon and I don't have the money to buy it. Having My Tasco binocular by my side , I then set off to set up the observatory, which lies just opposite my room. the teacher in charge, Madam Wong has bought food for the night. As the chairman, has to fill the ice box with ice and water, set up all the telescope and other equipment, vacumm and clean the observatory. carry the chairs. I then have to set up my laptop to register all the members present. What a suprise , today we actually have the Year 5 seniors coming by.

The night was enjoyable, my kind of enjotment of course. It was like out of a sudden, unregistered members suddenly pour out from nowhere, causing me to get a little nervous, I tried to settle the mob and assign them to a telescope. By the way, I didn't place any of the eyepiece nor zero-in any of the scopes. So little time, so much work. There were no briefing or what-so-ever like those in canoeing, but then again, all the person come in at different times, causing it to be more chaotic as ever. Eventually, the dust settled and everything somehow become in order. Is is me or them? I asked myself.

The Tarsos people were nice, they explained nearly everything that I needed to know as the chairperson, they even repaired some of the telescope for us. Most of the equipment is badly damaged. In the end, the new telescope was successfully installed. That was my primary concern.

As the chairman, I felt that I have not met the qualification as one, I felt so hopeless and out of control, but then all turns out well. I think I am just too harsh to myself.

One thing to be noted, Mr Albert actually commented on my laptop's wall paper, which is quite nice to hear that he identifies the weapon as an illegal customization of the G3 Assualt Rifle, the G3 PIP. Classified as a SMG but has the stopping power of an assualt rifle.

I think thats about all for this post.

Tee Ka Foo. Wilco,out.

Tunguska-M

Tunguska-M

The premier advance anti aircraft weapon system of the eastern block, consist of 2 30mm cannons and missiles for the sole purpose of hunting aircarft and high speed assisted flight projectile. Proudly serving in the armed forces of India, Russia, Morocco, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Peru, Algeria.

The system is based on the chassis of the GM-352M which is also used as the basis for the Buk-1M (NATO:SA-11 Gadfly) and Tor (NATO:SA-15). Overall the layout is similar to the German Gepard 35 mm anti-aircraft gun. A large central turret contains three of the crew: the commander, gunner, and radar operator. The driver sits in the front left of the hull, with a gas turbine APU to his right. The engine is at the rear of the hull.

The chassis has six road wheels with hydropneumatic suspension on each side, with a drive sprocket at the rear and three return rollers. An NBC system is also integrated into the chassis.

A large E-band search radar is mounted on the rear top of the turret that combined with a turret front mounted J-band tracking radar forms the 1RL144M (NATO:Hot Shot) radar system. The system has a detection range of around 18 km, and can detect targets flying as low as 15 m. A C/D-band IFF system is also fitted designated 1RL138.

The system is able to fire on the move using cannons, although it must be stationary to fire missiles. The system has two modes of operation, radar and optical, in radar mode the target tracking is fully automatic, with the guns aimed using data from the radar. In optical mode the gunner tracks the target through an 8 x magnification (8 degree field of view) stabilized sight, with the radar providing range data.
The 2A38M 30 mm cannons are built by the Tulamashzavod Joint Stock Company and are fired alternately. They have a combined rate of fire of between 4,000 and 5,000 rounds per minute, and have a muzzle velocity of 960 m/s. Bursts of between 83 and 250 rounds are fired as determined by the target type. HE-T and HE-I shells are used fitted with a A-670 time and impact fuze.

The system uses the same 9M311 (NATO: SA-19/SA-N-11) missile family as the naval CIWS Kashtan, which are fired in the optical mode, the tracking radar being used to send steering commands to the missiles.

The system is reported to have a kill probability of 0.6 with cannons and 0.65 with missiles.

The Tunguska-M is a cheap and affordable anti aircraft system with the high kill ration, it is realatively cheap at 8-10 million a piece. Thus, a piece of machine that can be considered a natural enemy of those who flew above.

All About Me

My name is Tee Ka Foo. I am a boy. The boy likes to play.

Ok, lets get this straight. I am not some 10 year old trying to follow a trend or some person who just want to uncover all the bits and pieces of his life, leaking every piece of information he has to the public although everyone is not aware. Hmm.... What should I say about me..... I am an avid military fanboy who has not yet serve in the military. After reading a lot of articles about tactical espionage, i decided not to leak any information about me ( besides the general ones). I listen to heavy metal, shock rock, progressive rock, new age, chinese pop(only jay chow and F.I.R), and ochestrated music. What else.... Thats about all, wait for my next post.