Guess what i learned about today (hint: think tom clancy)

[irishamerican]

So in global conflicts we study the history of war and we start from the modern age and move back which paints an interestingly different picture. But back to my story, we are studying israel and their many wars (some of you probably already know what im gonna say next) and we just finished their last war where they were atacked by surpise on yam kippur i want to say but im not sure, and during this war, besides having the largest tank battle in history on its belt, the israelis launched many air strikes on syria, but in all the confusion guess what happened....... Wait for it...... Wait for it...... One of the strike craft suposedly was accidenily loaded with a nuclear weapon, yes you read right nuclear weapon, and guess what happened to this plain, oh well it got shot down over the syrian desert, but thankfuly nukes only go off when there set to, for the most part anyway, so it didnt go off. But the story dosent end there, a few years later israel is doing an inventory of there nukes (they havent realised what happened yet) and notice that one is gone missing, so after some digging (figurativly, i mean reaserch) they realise "oh shit it must be on one of those crashed planes ah maybe no one will notice", so they sweep it under the rug because they cant just go to syria and say "ah hey guys we know we just wooped your ass in another war but, well we think we accidentily put a nuke on a plane that crashed in your desert ". So basically their is a nuke lying around somewhere in a desert in a hostile nation and theres nothing we can do about it, scary huh. Now as for tom clancy he took this story and said some syrian farmer found it sold it to terrorists who then bombed baltimore ruring a big football game, this was in the sum of all fears. Now i could not beleve this when my teacher told us this but its true. So what do you think.

P.S. Dont move this to history, this is more of a discusion because its still a problem. Also let me know if there are any typos that i missed, thanks.

[flyboy2112]

Well, in the book the terrorists nuke Denver, not Baltimore, Jack Ryan is married to Cathy, etc.

While unsecured nuclear material is a problem, particularly a whole nuclear weapon, it's unlikely that any terrorist group will have both the resources and the expertise required to reverse engineer a weapon to use. Nuclear weapons such as the one that was presumed lost are almost impossible to detonate unless you have the proper access codes, which are very lengthy and kept under extremely tight security. I would presume that in the event that an aircraft is loaded with a nuclear weapon intended for use, the access codes will have been entered into the Permissive Action Link, or somehow entered by the pilot. A weapon that was loaded accidentally will not have the access codes entered.

It is technically impossible to bypass a permissive action link.

There is also a very low probability an that accidental detonation of the high explosives surrounding the nuclear material will cause a fission reaction that brings the total explosion above a yield of four pounds of TNT, one in a billion under normal conditions. Keep in mind these weapons are typically rated at 20 thousand tons of TNT in explosive yield. There's almost zero probability that a nuclear weapon falling off of a plane will cause an explosion of any significant yield. Most likely there will be no explosion at all.

[standardstate]

Spooky if true.

You want another Clancy story? In one of his books (Debt of Honor) the us and japan go to war, and at the end a japanese commercial airline pilot crashes a plane filled with fuel into the capitol, killing most members of congress as well as the president. This was pre-9/11.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by standardstate

You want another Clancy story? In one of his books (Debt of Honor) the us and japan go to war, and at the end a japanese commercial airline pilot crashes a plane filled with fuel into the capitol, killing most members of congress as well as the president. This was pre-9/11.

Red Storm Rising was also a good "what-if" book he wrote. Probably one of the best books he has written.

[standardstate]

Originally Posted by Prismatic

Red Storm Rising was also a good "what-if" book he wrote. Probably one of the best books he has written.

He's a good read. I'm not a fan of his political beliefs (which bleed through into his novels) but I've read all of the Jack Ryan books and enjoyed them.

[flyboy2112]

Originally Posted by standardstate

Spooky if true.

You want another Clancy story? In one of his books (Debt of Honor) the us and japan go to war, and at the end a japanese commercial airline pilot crashes a plane filled with fuel into the capitol, killing most members of congress as well as the president. This was pre-9/11.

I never really got through much of Debt of Honor. Starting around the time of The Sum of All Fears, Clancy really started filling his books with complete crap that had absolutely no relevance to the actual plot. I mean, how many pages is The Sum of All Fears? Much of that had nothing to do with the terrorist plot to destroy Denver.

I'll have to agree with Prismatic. I've read Red Storm Rising several times and it is absolutely my favorite Tom Clancy novel. Without Remorse comes in as a close second.

[irishamerican]

if you guys like clancy theres i book i read a while back about a journalist and ex cia agent its really good but for the life of me i cant remember what its called lol, i'll look for it tommorrow and let you know if i found it