Nuclear Bunker Buster - Base Principle

Base Principle

While conventional bunker busters utilize several methods to penetrate concrete structures, these are for the purpose of destroying the structure directly, and are generally limited in how much of a bunker, or system of bunkers they can destroy by depth and their relatively low explosive force (versus nuclear weapons). The primary difference between conventional and nuclear Bunker Busters, is that while the conventional version is meant for one target, the nuclear version can destroy an entire underground bunker system in one hit.

The main principles in modern bunker design are largely centered around survivability in nuclear war. As a result of this both American and Soviet sites reached a state of "super hardening" involving principle defenses against the effects of a nuclear weapon—springs or a counterweight (in the case of the R-36) mounted control capsules, thick (three to four feet for the Minuteman command capsule) heavily reinforced with rebar and steel. These systems were designed to survive at their base a near miss of 20 megatons. This is because the seismic forces of an air burst of 20 megatons does not impart shock waves strong enough to overcome their countermeasures, and due to things like depth, soil type, rock formations, etc., the predictability of the outcome is highly variable.

A nuclear bunker buster negates most of the countermeasures involved in the protection of underground bunkers. By penetrating the ground it directs all of its energy into it. A relatively low yield may be able to produce seismic forces beyond those of an air burst or even groundburst of a weapon with twice its yield. Additionally, the weapon, by imparting its kinetic energy at depth, has the ability to impart more severe horizontal shock waves that many bunker systems are not explicitly designed to combat. Further, the explosive force is expended into the ground and at depth, limiting the amount of fallout that's carried high into the upper atmosphere.