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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tiberius" data-source="post: 3154272" data-attributes="member: 1376">I dunno. The stated 20kt yield of one of the nearby attacks is approximately equal to the Hiroshima & Nagasaki blasts, which were caused by fission devices. While Fat Man and Little Boy were sufficiently large to require B-29s to deliver, 60 years of miniaturization could conceivably produce weapons of that nature that could fit inside a 55-gallon drum.On the other hand, for Washington to be "gone" a larger weapon would be required. The atomic bombings of Japan were airbursts to maximize blast damage, and the 13kt and 21kt yields at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (respectively) only caused total destruction within a mile radius of the blast sites. Using these as examples, we can see that an explosion of that size isn't sufficient to totally obliterate a city, (especially if the buildings were designed with the idea that they'd be the target of Soviet multi-megaton city-busters in mind).The fact that the MO seems to be truck bombs would indicate that the blast would cause less initial damage than our real-world examples, but would be much dirtier. So either the attackers used bigger bombs for bigger cities, or we're dealing with different definitions of "gone".</blockquote>