It is launched from a submarine based platform. It can carry a 100-kiloton nuclear payload to a target up to 12,000 kilometers away. Finally, there are Tactical Bombers. These planes are designed to carry an array of different atomic weapons. They range in size and shape depending on the designated mission. On Average, these planes can fly without refueled for 12,000-16,000 kilometers (Friedman).
The use of nuclear weapons is permitted in political and combatant situations. They are authorized being attacked by unconventional weapons as a means of retaliation. Also, it is authorized under extreme circumstances, which are to be determined by the President. The first use of nuclear weapons in a war was when American forces bombed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WW II. These were the first and only uses of atomic weapons against another nation. .
An Arial explosion of a nuclear device has different effects than that of a nuclear device detonated at ground level. The first effect of a nuclear explosion is that there is an intense flash of light. It is accompanied by a powerful pulse of heat radiation, sufficient to set fire to light combustible material. Anyone who looked directly into the light of the flash would be blinded. Within three kilometers, almost everyone would be killed, either directly by the blast or by collapsing or flying masonry. At eight kilometers, it is estimated that the effects of the blast would kill about fifty per cent of people. Immediately following the blast wave would be hurricane force winds, first outwards from the explosion and many seconds later inwards to replace the air that went outward, creating a vacuum-like effect. This is when coalescent fires cause sufficient updraft to form their own wind, blowing inwards from all sides and thereby increasing the intensity of the fire. The temperature even in basements and bomb shelters rises above lethal levels, and the fire uses all available oxygen.
