Cold War Nuclear Weapons
After world war ii the struggle for world power erupted and the united states and the soviet union took the lead.
Cold war nuclear weapons. These weapons are capable of enormous destructive power thousands of times greater than that of conventional explosives. A replica of an early atom bomb. As well as unguided rockets and conventionally armed aams the united states developed harder hitting bomber killer weapons during the cold war too. The role that the invention of nuclear weapons played in bringing world war ii to an end remains debatable but the fact is undeniable that these powerful new weapons drastically changed the nature and potential intensity of modern warfare.
Trump abandons invaluable brake on nuclear war as us withdraws from cold war weapons treaty with russia end of the inf treaty will likely heighten not reduce the threat posed by ballistic. After world war ii nuclear weapons were also developed by the soviet union 1949 the united kingdom 1952 france 1960 and the people s republic of china 1964 which contributed to the state of conflict and extreme tension that became known as the cold war. Andrei sakharov one of the russian scientists behind the bomb would later become a dissident and a nonproliferation activist. Britain put its own work aside and joined the manhattan project as a junior partner in 1943.
The cold war nuclear weapons race was primarily a contest between the united states and the soviet union though other countries developed nuclear weapons during this time. During the cold war the french nuclear deterrent was centered around the force de frappe a nuclear triad consisting of dassault mirage iv bombers carrying such nuclear weapons as the an 22 gravity bomb and the asmp stand off attack missile pluton and hades ballistic missiles and the redoutable class submarine armed with strategic nuclear missiles. Nuclear weapons are explosive devices that derive their power from nuclear reactions called fission or fusion. During world war ii three countries decided to build the atomic bomb.
Thankfully as of january 2014 no nuclear weapons have been employed in combat since august 1945. The atomic bomb and the origins of the cold war the nuclear age began before the cold war. Britain the united states and the soviet union.