Good laugh for the day.
KGB says over 100 suitcase sized nukes missing from former Soviet Union. Care to guess where they probably are or who has 'em?? Not to mention various odds and ends!!!
To paraphrase Mike Irwin, BWAAAAHHHHAAAAAAAHHHHAAAAAA!
Suitcase nukes are a misnomer. They may be manufactured to fit a small footprint, but everything else about them is large, including their mass and emissions signature. For example:
The W80 is the warhead used in the ACM and ALCM. (see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W80)
Specs:
11.8 inches in diameter and 31.4 inches long
about 290 lb (132 kg)
variable yield 5-150 Kt
Older technology, smaller yield, high explosives would be a better approach:
The W54 was the Davy Crockett warhead, first produced in 1956. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_%28nuclear_device%29)
Specs:
31 in. long, diameter of 11 in. at its widest
51 lb (23 kg)
variable yield of 10 or 20 tons
As somebody who just retired after a military career tracking and ferreting out nuclear weapons proliferators, I'm constantly amazed by how the injection of a term like "suitcase nuke" spreads fear and pandemonium into a populace. That alone has terrorist value, if I were Osama bin Laden I'd make damn sure that the phrase would get injected at opportune times into any propoganda stream I sent towards the West. Let the panic and fear-mongering take on a life of it's own, it would be my biggest bang for the buck, without even having the means to make a fission kaboom.