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Did Kyle Hill get his hands on a piecutter?
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2025 3:16 am
by Johnnie Lyle
Video here:
https://youtu.be/C06yW0232Bc?si=yIflx9Ni44-1MMmd
It sounds a lot like how Stuart described the piecutters, though apparently this one isn’t classified. It also doesn’t do what say the nukecalculators do, which is map out damage from a specific radius.
But it does sound a lot like how Stuart described the process, where you pick the target, dial in yield and distance, and calculate effects.
Re: Did Kyle Hill get his hands on a piecutter?
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2025 5:49 am
by Pdf27
Johnnie Lyle wrote: ↑Thu Oct 16, 2025 3:16 am
Video here:
https://youtu.be/C06yW0232Bc?si=yIflx9Ni44-1MMmd
It sounds a lot like how Stuart described the piecutters, though apparently this one isn’t classified. It also doesn’t do what say the nukecalculators do, which is map out damage from a specific radius.
But it does sound a lot like how Stuart described the process, where you pick the target, dial in yield and distance, and calculate effects.
My copy has one of those in it. It's being talked up for YouTube, but basically the same as Stuart's description. You use it to calculate the bomb effects at a particular range (radiation, thermal, blast overpressure) and then use the book - or your own tables - to work out the likely damage. My copy was never classified.
Re: Did Kyle Hill get his hands on a piecutter?
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2025 8:06 am
by David Newton
Besides, there's absolutely zero point them being classified at all today.
The secret bits are how you get a nuke to have a particular yield and exactly how many nukes of what yield are in the arsenal. An initiation of a particular yield at a given height above ground will produce known over-pressure, heat and fairly well characterised radiation fluxes. Working out effects at a given point is then just a case of using a digital terrain model to see how the landforms affect and divert those elements.