Transition source: Obama to extend "nuclear umbrella" to Israel?

[Sirotnikov]

I would assume that Israel is smart enough to hide its missile bases from Iran. Not to mention the fact that Iran doesn't even have a single weapon yet. Never mind enough to wipe out Israeli nuke capability.

Iran has already quite potent missiles that can reach Israel.

You don't need a nuke to destroy our missile bases. Their location one can find on google earth, wikimapia and the like.

[KrazyHorse]

You don't need a nuke to destroy our missile bases. Their location one can find on google earth, wikimapia and the like.

a) If your stationary missile bases aren't hardened then you guys are idiots

b) If your entire nuke missile force is in stationary missile bases then you guys are idiots

[KrazyHorse]

If you really want to be sure of your second strike capabilities get a couple of old USN boomers and cruise them around the Med...

[KrazyHorse]

****, maybe even ram them up Iran's ass in the Gulf. It's practically an American lake right now...

[Darius871]

I could swear I've read before that Israel already has at least one boomer, and elsewhere that they have three...

[KrazyHorse]

Nobody's sure if they outfitted the diesel-electric boats they bought with nukes or not.

[KrazyHorse]

There are very few examples of D-E powered nuke missile subs

The only one I could find reference to was

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

[KrazyHorse]

I'm sure TCO could tell you more about this than I can.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Nobody's sure if they outfitted the diesel-electric boats they bought with nukes or not.

Well in that vein nobody's "sure" Israel has nukes at all, but a number above 600 warheads has been usually assumed for over a decade anyway. It's smart of them not to disclose what is and isn't deployed, and by what means. But if Siro would be so kind as to breach OpSec, I'm all ears

[KrazyHorse]

Well in that vein nobody's "sure" Israel has nukes at all

No, I mean there's an actual level of doubt.

It's not a trivial proposition to outfit subs with nuke missiles. ISR may have decided there were better things to spend their money on.

[KrazyHorse]

BTW, ISR has actively denied that they've placed nuke missiles on the subs. This is different from their response to questions about nuke capability in general.

One would think that a deterrent weapon should be known to exist...or are they planning to reveal its existence at the Party congress on Monday?



EDIT: seriously? Did I manage to write "it's" in place of "its"?

Must have been tired.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

Well in that vein nobody's "sure" Israel has nukes at all

No, I mean there's an actual level of doubt.

It's not a trivial proposition to outfit subs with nuke missiles. ISR may have decided there were better things to spend their money on.

Well, in the event that Iran has not only several warheads but the means to deploy them, outfitting their subs will be more than worth the dough just to have a credible second strike ability. That wouldn't be for several more years, but why they'd wait so long I have no idea. It's not like we'll ever know.

[KrazyHorse]

Iran has not only several warheads but the means to deploy them

Instead of "several" you should probably say "several dozen". Also, I might note that from what I've seen the estimates for ISR are nowhere near 600 warheads. I've seen 100-200 from most sources.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Darius871


Well in that vein nobody's "sure" Israel has nukes at all, but a number above 600 warheads has been usually assumed for over a decade anyway. It's smart of them not to disclose what is and isn't deployed, and by what means. But if Siro would be so kind as to breach OpSec, I'm all ears

More along the line of 200 warheads. 600 is more than the UK and France combined!

[Jon Miller]

We could offer to sell them one of our nuke subs?

JM