I just modeled the plot of the "Nuclear War: A Scenario" [1]. The idea of the book is that North Korea launches an ICBM at Washington, DC. Here's the trajectory [2]. Supposedly the US launches lots of its own ICBMs because of a "use them or lose them" fear. Here's their trajectory [3]. If you compare these 2 trajectories, you will find that the first one doesn't come within a thousand miles to the US ICBMs, so that part of the plot is flawed. The second part of the plot is that the returning US ICBMs fly over parts of Russia, and this triggers an all out Russian response. But again, if you look at those 2 maps you will find that the original NK missile travels for many thousands of miles over Russian territory, while the US missiles travel over much less.
Important to note that jacobson is kind of a crank. A fairly good writer and decent researcher, but the string of crank topics she's written on makes it hard to take anything seriously.
alkh•6mo ago
It's great that you can choose a launch preset as well; it is much more realistic
credit_guy•6mo ago
I just modeled the plot of the "Nuclear War: A Scenario" [1]. The idea of the book is that North Korea launches an ICBM at Washington, DC. Here's the trajectory [2]. Supposedly the US launches lots of its own ICBMs because of a "use them or lose them" fear. Here's their trajectory [3]. If you compare these 2 trajectories, you will find that the first one doesn't come within a thousand miles to the US ICBMs, so that part of the plot is flawed. The second part of the plot is that the returning US ICBMs fly over parts of Russia, and this triggers an all out Russian response. But again, if you look at those 2 maps you will find that the original NK missile travels for many thousands of miles over Russian territory, while the US missiles travel over much less.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_War:_A_Scenario
[2] https://nuclearsecrecy.com/missilemap/?&s=41.202%2C126.69100...
[3] https://nuclearsecrecy.com/missilemap/?&s=48.416%2C-101.339&...
datadrivenangel•6mo ago