DEFENSE: Yellow Light for the Neutron Bomb

A wave of Soviet tanks and armored personnel carriers rolls across the northern German plain. Unable to stem the tide, NATO generals request permission to use tactical nuclear weapons. According to an alliance agreement, the President of the U.S. must give his assent before battlefield nukes can be fired. He does. Scores of heavy artillery pieces are aimed at the invaders. Nuclear devices, each packing the equivalent of ten kilotons (10,000 tons) worth of TNT, halt the aggressors. But in the process, West Germany's cities and factories are leveled, and civilian casualties run into the millions. An American military spokesman, paraphrasing another from the Viet Nam War era, explains, "We had to destroy Germany in order to save it. "

At his press conference last week.

President Jimmy Carter flashed a yellow light—proceed with caution—for the funding of a weapon that most U.S. military strategists consider necessary to avoid such a scenario. The neutron bomb,* they argue, would enable NATO commanders to foil an attack without virtually destroying West Germany in the process, as would be the case if existing tactical nukes were used.

The neutron bomb would be delivered by Lance missiles to battlefield targets as far distant as 75 miles, or by 8-in. artillery shells to objectives up to 20 miles away. It gets its name from the fact that on detonation, unusually large quantities of radioactive neutrons are released, which are effective in killing people without destroying buildings or vehicles. They can, for example, penetrate enemy armor at considerable ranges, though such armor can be made resistant to the blast and heat of a regular nuclear explosion, except in direct or near-direct hits. "Large yield" nuclear weapons, on the other hand, are designed to enhance heat and blast—the major killing factors in the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

The neutron bomb that is slated for production packs a one-kiloton punch. By contrast, most of the tactical nukes that are stockpiled in Europe come in sizes often, 20 and 50 kilotons. If a standard ten-kiloton warhead were detonated, it would level nearly every building within a radius of over a mile. A neutron bomb exploded 130 yds. in the air would destroy all structures within only a 140-yd. radius. It would instantly kill anyone within a half-mile radius, and for people within a one-mile range would cause delayed deaths up to a month after the blast (see chart). But because of its low-yield blast and heat effect, it would spare all buildings beyond a 140-yd. radius of ground zero. Moreover, the radiation dissipates quickly, and would not affect an area beyond a radius of 1% miles. More than other nukes, the bomb is thus very much a precision weapon, designed for battlefields of limited size.