Nuclear Madness - Part 1 - Primary Targets

No-one thinks of Nuclear War at any time, it's not a very enticing image at the worst of times let alone the best. After watching Cold War - the Series on Youtube, I've been pondering just how safe Canada would really be in the outbreak of a war situation. With Putin and Co. posturing in a way that reminds me eerily of the Cold War relations between the former Soviet Union and the United States, we may have left the Doomsday Clock a little too far away from zero. Not to mention, China and their ever increasing posturing by creating ICBMs that can reach the North American continent.

Most of my friends and I live in Vancouver or the Fraser Valley and we don't think much of how much the Fraser Valley/Lower Mainland would be affected in the wake of an all-out nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia or any of the nuclear arsenals of any capable nuclear nation. We're all too concerned with our every-day lives, but I figured I'd ponder as to what sort of targets would be attacked and/or could be attacked by Russian nuclear missile forces.

In an all-out war, Canadian bases would be considered as alternate bases that US forward forces could deploy from after their home bases were targetted and taken out by SS-18s. These and international airports would be considered primary targets. These targets are the main bulwarks of defending our continent from armed invasion. Fighters, bombers and trasnports could deploy from international airport runways, so those will also be targetted. So what sort of weapons would target the international airports and Canadian bases. The SS-18 can be scaled from 1MT to 20MT. These would be the logical choice for taking out a high-priority target such as an air force base or an international airport. However the 90 missiles will be targetted more for US ICBM sites, CONUS Air Force Bases and more than likely, the missiles targetting primary targets in Canada would be 800Kt SS-26s or sea-based ballistic submarine launched nuclear surface to surface ballistic missiles.

Comox Air Force Base
Abbotsford International Airport
Boundary Bay Airport
Vancouver International Airport

Considering how scary this scenario is just by taking a look at the damage area, it's a wakeup call to first response units and Emergency Disaster units in the Lower Mainland.

In further posts, I will go into more of what other resources in the Lower Mainland will be considered targets. I suspect that any nation that is going to launch an ICBM strike is going to go for a scorched earth approach and target every possible resource that we have.