In message , Bill
Silvey writes
"Paul J. Adam" wrote in message

And the Genie's kill radius is not that large.

Are you factoring in EMP with that kill radius?

Against which platforms? Some are designed to survive it, otheres have
not heard of it.

If air-to-air tacnukes worked really well, they'd still be around.
They didn't, so they aren't.

I don't know if that's entirely accurate. The role of air-to-air tacnukes
wasn't "versus fighters". If it had been, I'm sure something more than a
"point, pull, and pray" type of firing mechanism would've been used.
Proximity detection, SARH and that sort of thing would've been incorporated.

Which gets you to the same conclusion as most other theatres... if you
need that much targetting, you can kill da bum with HE.

Air to air tacnukes were designed to be fired at formations of slow,
lumbering Soviet bombers coming across the DEW line, not fast, agile
fighters.

Or bombers with decent (by 1960s standard) ECM.

As the technology and indeed the political climate changed, the
role of the Genie began to diminish. Also, political and military
leadership I think probably grew less and less cavalier about throwing
around a few nukes here and there just to even up the odds. I'm sure that
today, a Genie would be just as effective versus a Tu-22 as it would've
versus grouped formations of Bear bombers.

Except a Genie took up three Falcon slots. (How many Sidewinders could
you put on a rack in place of three Falcons or one Genie?)

Back when a Falcon had a 5-10% kill rate, going nuclear (trading three
10% shots for one Big Bang) makes a sort of sense.

But when the bombers don't mass in formation and the missiles are
killing 70% of targets, giving up three .7 shots for one .9 shot is not
good.

The willingness to use it, however, is a different matter.

True, but an excellent reason to get the kills (or threat thereof) with
conventional weapons while maintaining a serious nuclear arsenal.

--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk