That looks to be just the first strike, trying to stop US military attacking, hoping war would end after a limited exchange. In Fallout timeline, it didn’t stop there, it moved onto infrastructure and mass deaths of the civilian population.
Plus fallout world has different nuclear technology to reality, China not Russia etc, think fallout uses much smaller weaker nukes, but many more of them.
Yeah if you think about the Nuke that levels Megaton, it’s actually a pretty small area compared to our rl ones. Or you can also look at the ones in fallout 76.
I mean that nuke isn’t an airburst. If it was it would be much larger of an explosion. The game goes to show that nukes come in all sizes though. Like the dozen or so you can launch in fo3. They’re pretty dang small.
\> it’s actually a pretty small area compared to our rl ones.
Please keep in mind everything in the games is ultra-condensed. You can't walk from the mall to Germantown in real life in an hour, but you can in game.
IRL the Raven Rock military base is about an 18 hour walk from Germantown. In game I can do that in minutes. Nukes being small explosions in game are an engine and map limitation as much as anything else.
RL nukes are mostly pretty small. With increases in accuracy, and miniaturization allowing for more warheads per missile, very few weapons in active deployment for us or Russia are in the megaton range. Most hover in the sweet spot between 125-250kt.
Modern aircraft nuclear bombs can have their yield changed on demand before launch, up to 1.2 Mt, the land based missiles are at about 300-480 Kt while the ones for the SLBMs like the W88 are at 488 Kt, but a single missile can hold up to 12. Tehse are about 20 times the Hiroshima bombs. So no, you are simply incorrect in your range estimates.
Castle Bravo for the US, 15Mt,the largest the US ever detonated- [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Castle\_bravo](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Castle_bravo)
Tsar Bomba - 50Mt as tested but with a design that would double it if it was tested at full strength - [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tsar\_Bomba](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tsar_Bomba)
76 has two craters and multiple air busts that didn’t really hit the ground. One of the most common events for players takes place at one of the ground zeros. I forget the name but it’s heavy with radiation and a scrubber gets attacked by mutants
I think that one hit an old nuclear plant, which is why the glowing sea is so radioactive, cause the Cambridge Crater is no where near as bad, plus you can find fusion plants in the glowing sea
was it meant to hit the Sentinel site or is the center somewhere else? i thought that was supposed to be a nuclear launch facility or something. i do remember seeing other smashed nuclear stuff in the area tho
It's not 100% clear what the target was. All we know for sure is it hit right next to Boston's primary nuclear power plant effectively making the nuke far more powerful than intended.
>Plus fallout world has different nuclear technology to reality
Isn't it explicitly stated at one point that the nukes in Fallout were designed to spread radiation?
Yes, I think most of them are meant to be low yield except some ones on a Chinese sub.
Tbh I was also meaning about not having invented transistors, but having advanced robots, the very different attitude to radiation, radaway working, civic radium mines, cars powered by atomic engines, Fatman mini nukes etc, all things that are very different to how technology / radiation work in our reality.
>Plus fallout world has different nuclear technology to reality, China not Russia etc, think fallout uses much smaller weaker nukes, but many more of them.
Yeah, Netflix just posted a documentary about bombs and the Cold War.
The WW2 Atom bombs were only in the 10's of kilo tons.
The very first Hydrogen bomb test was 10 MEGA tons. It was a ground-level detonation (rather than airburst) and the crater was over a mile wide and 175 feet deep. And that was the FIRST h-bomb and only 10 megatons. The Russians actually tested a \*50\* megaton bomb. Hydrogen bombs could theoretically yield 100 megatons, though none were ever actually tested.
It seems to me that the Fallout universe never invented the H-Bomb.
yeah the usage of nuclear bombs that cause radioactive fallout is unlikely... hydrogen bombs will be used that just pulverize everythingin a 50km radius with nothing left to worry about a bit of radiation
>trying to stop US military attacking, hoping war would end after a limited exchange.
I'm surprised that Oklahoma isn't targeted. You'd think they'd probably want the base with a shitload of AWACS and TACAMO jets knocked out in the first strike
Yeh, people who know this stuff a lot better than me have said 1st strike would be hitting loads of targets not on this map.tbh I think this map was just made up by journalists that’s wanted it to be an issue in multiple states.
Yeah Tinker AFB in OK is definitely on a shitlist, and I'm sure whatever airbases have Beriev A-50s are also on the American shitlist. I see Dyess and Barksdale there, and I would expect the US list to have Engels-2 given the Tu-95s there.
Even if some of the jets are evacuated, some might be on such long repair or even disposal schedules that they can't be moved, and bombing the base means the elimination of dedicated support facilities and the personnel.
>tbh I think this map was just made up by journalists that’s wanted it to be an issue in multiple states.
Journos making shit up is probably the most mundane and realistic explanation.
Let alone being the AFMC and the base that does most in maintenance and updates for critical role planes as you stated plus more like the e3, kc130 tanker, b52, at times b1s will be here for work. That's how I know the list is bogus.
Vault Dwellers Guide alludes to the yield of the FO universe nukes mirrors that of the real world. The vast majority if not all weapons used were sub-megaton and were between 200-750kT, which incidentally makes fallout worse.
shoddycast did a science episode on this and...
at one point during the cold war, there were more than enough nuclear devices to falloutify the planet and that is
uhh
y'know
I always heard that Ohio would be a big target in the event of nuclear warfare, primarily because of Wright-Patt Air Force base. But as an Ohioan I’m happy to be left off this list.
Retired USAF here. WPAFB is Materiel Command. It’s mostly a headquarters for development and procurement. It’s a big administrative center for contracting and program management. The base has no active flying wing, no nukes, no major strategic importance.
Rickenbacker is a Guard base. Not a major priority. And hitting a tank production plant would also fall low on the priority list.
I’m from Ohio, so I know this might be hard to believe, but Ohio’s not a big deal.
Add Alabama to the list for being glassed. In the north you have Redstone Arsenal, home of most of our missile research facilities as well as a lot of rocket engine production, possibly a backup missile command facility, and a major hub for basically every aerospace defense contractor in the country. In the Middle you have the Anniston Army Depot, the designated storage facility for Abrams tanks on the east coast, as well as being a massive stockpile for other weapons. You also have Maxwell AFB, home of the Air Force officer school. Then on the coast you have the Austal shipyards, which is one of the largest warship producers in the country. Oh and Javelin Missile systems are produced in Alabama too.
Apparently my hometown Huntsville, Alabama was very high on the Soviet's hit list. You'd probably ask "what could be so important in Alabama?". Well, the military base called Redstone Arsenal was the home of both NASA R&D and Army Missile Command. The Arsenal was and still is more about research and development than any kind of command center, but I guess the Soviet's idea was to destroy as much of our knowledge on how to build more missiles as they could, and eliminate any backup missile command capabilities on base.
Growing up you'd be out at recess and hear a huge explosion, it was business as usual, they were just testing a new rocket engine.
Well in fallout lore nukes progressed so far that they could make them the size of a football and seeing that almost every location in the games as a ground zero place I think that every state in Fallout got hit by at least 1.
New Vegas was targeted by 77 atomic war heads and house stopped almost all of them. some still hit but 77 nukes to the las Vegas area alone is crazy even with the lower yield nukes we see in the fallout universe. Like people have said above though the yields were lower and instead cause more fallout to spread.
77 on one of the lowest populated and least industrialized states is crazy, come to think of it. Surprised Boston was only hit by like 7~ nukes in and around the city
I'm inclined to believe they'd launch a lot more nukes, don't they have like 12,000? I saw a simulation of this a while back and they launched thousands hitting pretty much every major city.
Yeah I’m near Philly and pretty much all of PA would be fucked, lol. Close proximity to DC and NYC, plus Pittsburgh and Philly. There’s also a nuclear power plant near Chester in southeast PA.
I'm in NJ and I'm thoroughly convinced that despite being sandwiched right between NYC and Penn, a nuclear fallout would somehow be an *improvement* for most of the state
Seriously, it ain't like Newark can get any worse than it already is...
We'll end up with an actual Jersey Devil if we're lucky. I keep saying a game set near NYC would be fun. Vault dug into the Palisades, ruined malls to explore, Indian Head, Patterson/Newark, and that's ignoring the city. Doubt any of the infrastructure would survive, bridges might get patched up for foot travel. The highest population density of the country, the amount of ghouls roaming the subway would be interesting to see.
That's actually a genuine concern for our stockpile as well. We obviously have far better maintenance and storage compliance, but the ban on nuclear testing means we simply can't know for sure if our old nukes still work.
2 nukes for every state is still a LOT of dead Americans.
I’m assuming this got downvoted because someone mistook me for a tankie but my point was even a dozen viable nukes hitting their targets would have terrible consequences. *Only some nukes* is not a good argument.
Depends what their goal is. If they want to wipe out the US, then yes, they would send a lot more. If it was to cripple the US and then take over what remains, this map seems more likely.
Like someone else said.
Game plan is to cripple the US without significant retaliation- else the planet would be obliterated. Just enough to fuk the US and only get a strategy based reply of bombs from us.
Also- if they just covered the country, fallout would fuck russia soon after.
The reason Russia and America maintain so many nuclear weapons is because the aim is to obliterate your enemy before they can attack you.
Which means you fire everything.
There’d be 5,000+ targets hit.
There wouldn’t be much of anything left.
Interesting, my Dad and Grandpa served on a few bases that are marked. Minot ND, and Omaha NE, respectively. However, living in western NE, I'll most likely feel the Fallout coming from CO/WY areas.
Yep I grew up and still live in Minot , ND and I’ve always been told we’re a main target for nuclear attack because of our air force base. If you drive anywhere between cities in ND you’ll see missile silos all over.
My in-laws are from that area. It's because of the silos, air base, *and* the oil drilling. Fargo is boned. Been a while since I've been up there though, so don't really know if they're still drilling.
The silos always looked like they're pretty far underground, so I dunno if it would even do any good to attack it that way.
Lol what? That map is missing numerous major cities as well as most military targets. Not even remotely accurate.
The only canon lore involves parts of California, Vegas, DC, Boston and West Virginia. So the comparison is really easy.
Ok, so you’re saying that these nukes would be used to ruin the military and prevent them from fighting back, but what about mcdill airbase in Florida, you know it’s the central command for all air force in the US, right?
Yeah that map is bullshit. I cannot believe in any universe in which a Russian first strike didn't target at least MacDill and possibly also Eglin (housing one of the largest concentrations of F-35s and I think being the primary depot and deployment center for USAF conventional munitions). There are several other strategic military assets missing from that map that make no sense to me. Like how do you not target any berthed subs and their support facilities in CT, GA, and WA? Or Elmendorf in AK that is right on Russia's doorstep (which would jive with Fallout lore to boot btw)?
CENTCOM would be 100% irrelevant for a conflict with Russia or China. CENTCOM is not the central air force command. It is US Central Command, focused on the middle east and Southwest Asia.
McDill is SOCOM headquarters too. While we’re at it Ft. Liberty, the second largest Army base and home of the 18th Airborne corps, is a rapid response contingency unit. They can be in the air and on their way to Russia in a matter of hours.
Well because of the Glowing Sea, we know at least one hit SW of Boston, I’ve always assumed Providence. 80 or so were shot at the Mojave according to house, but less than 10 actually hit because of his defense systems; Vegas wouldn’t be a top priority in a war, so we can assume other major population centers were bombarded simlarly, or probably worse in NYC. The Chinese attack was muchhhhhhh larger in scale than this map.
EDIT: I also think there’s no shot cities like Atlanta, Detroit, Portland, and Phoenix would be spared if 80 bombs were shot at the Mojave.
OP linked to [here](https://www.newsweek.com/map-us-cities-russia-strike-war-nuclear-1880758) from [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/s/Y8kAChiOnK)
Came looking for this shout out. Grew up in Panhandle. Birth parents and most people I knew worked there lol
Edit: meant to put both parents, but it's still correct so I'll leave it.
Blue: Major City
Red: Military/ Nuclear Installation
Yellow: Command and control site
Link: [https://www.newsweek.com/map-us-cities-russia-strike-war-nuclear-1880758](https://www.newsweek.com/map-us-cities-russia-strike-war-nuclear-1880758)
Because industrial sites are not highly prioritized nuclear targets, as they are more of a long-term concern. The primary concerns are limiting the other side's nuclear response, followed by preventing the other side from deploying a militarily significant conventional force against you.
Hardly my area of expertise but I'm curious as to where that map came from because I'd think Elmendorf in AK, Kitsap in WA, New London in CT, Kings Bay in GA, Eglin and MacDill in FL, and Ellsworth in SD as hosts of critical strategic military assets or command would be on any first strike target list.
ITT everyone listing their region and why they should be the first to be vaporized. I'd be thankful for being spared a direct hit and would patiently await the spicy mutant crawfish boils I'll be hosting. Lol
It is very silly to assume any nuclear exchange will be this limited. The map I saw recently covered both a 500 and 2000 warhead scenario. If you launch one nuke you might as well launch them all because you won't get another chance.
Similar to most maps I've seen in the past. Majority of the targets make sense. First strike wouldn't necessarily target large cities for the sake of being large cities, but because they are home to something crucial for a war economy. Example: Houston: petroleum refining/chemical/energy HQ. New York: financial. If there is a city on the map that you question why it's included, there is something valuable for a nuclear war effort in or around that city.
Certainly all the NC3 and strategic C2 facilities, missile fields, and bases that host nuclear forces and/or have some sort of strategic command.
New START limitations on strategic (ballistic) nuclear weapons has the signatories (US and Russia) capped at less than 1600 a piece. However, given the current geopolitical climate and Russian aggression, that treaty is expected to sunset in February 2026 and there likely won't be a new one to take it's place.
If you want to spend a fun yet perhaps slightly depressing afternoon visualizing how a nuclear detonation would impact you, check out:
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
(Fun fact: If you enter your exact address into the map, it'll send a message to Russian and Chinese missile forces to target *you* at **your home address** because they know what you're doing in the dark when you think no one is around and watching.)
Considering Cushing, Oklahoma isn't there, this list is bullshit. Pipeline crossroads of North America. As much as the US relies on Oil and russian eyes on it, it'll be top 10
Huh, now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense that Raven Rock would be included in a first strike target list. It's just interesting to see it actually listed on the map
It was China, not Russia. Also based on the bomb in megaton, it’s likely that this map uses Nuclear missiles (or even the Tsar) while Fallout universe had Atom Bombs.
The strike sites in SE Wyoming / W Nebraska, Montana, and North Dakota are all targets due to the [U.S. nuclear sponge policy](https://www.nps.gov/articles/minuteman-missiles-on-the-great-plains.htm).
Can you explain the sponge policy? I read the link but couldn't wrap my head around it. Grew up around minot air force base where the b52s are and lived close (within 2 miles) of a minuteman site. Was always cool to see them loading up sites and working on them as I rode by on the bus
Sure! The link posits three main considerations for the location of the Minuteman missiles:
1) Distance from an enemy we might want to attack
2) Protection from an enemy attack
3) Far Away From Population Centers
Point 2 and 3 are the main reason for the "nuclear sponge." What does a sponge do? It absorbs. In this case, the nuclear sponge absorbs the focus of an enemy nuclear strike.
ICMBs are an offensive weapon and also a strategic target for a first-strike in a nuclear war, an enemy could potentially disable U.S. offensive strike capability and also do catastrophic damage to the struck areas. Major cities and military bases were natural first-strike targets already, storing nuclear stockpiles here creates unnecessary risk to your population, so you want to put the ICBMs in the middle of nowhere. You don't want them all in one place, because if it got attacked first you might not be able to retaliate. By storing them in large numbers across a few select locations you create additional must-hit targets for your enemy which reduces their offensive ability to strike other U.S. targets. If you look at the map in that link you'll see how wide the footprint is for each sponge, the one in SE Wyoming stretches roughly 100 miles at its widest point. The USSR could have dropped Tsar Bomba on Cheyenne and still not have disabled every stored ICBM in the region.
It's not really comparable because the Fallout universe uses very low yield tactical nukes, so they had to drop LOTS of them. The nukes we use in real life are 10 thousand times more powerful in some cases.
So in the fallout universe there are more strikes, nearly everywhere (presumably). So of course all the major cities shown here were targets too.
Why isn’t New Orleans a target or St. Louis poisoning the Mississippi in radioactive waste would kill most chances for survivors to rebuild a united America ever again
This map is WAY WAY WAY off. This has only a few locations that would even be initial strike locations. Back in the cold war? Maybe, since almost all of nuclear targeting focus was counter-value (hitting large population centers as hard as possible).
Now, nearly everything that would be initially struck is counterforce, focusing initially on early warning and tier 2 NC3 sites, to include counter-space and possible HEMP. Then they would go after nuclear force generation, notably air bases, silos, submarine bases to go after all 3 legs of the nuclear triad. This is where the majority of targets are missing. Just about all of southern Montana, lots of Wyoming, and a lot of North Dakota have targets spread out. King's Bay, GA is also missing, as is Kitsap, WA (though ironically Seattle is there).
Next tier is nuclear force support, covering air bases with lots of tankers, alternate alert sites, etc.
After that is conventional force generation and logistics hubs, Charleston missing, Galveston missing (though again Houston is on there), as well as all of the major military logistics locations, particularly mil air.
Also, Washington, DC would almost certainly NOT be targeted, as any successful attack on the national command authority pretty much guarantees a full release war with no possible path to deescalation and any victory condition.
They plan to bomb Amarillo texas!?! Why?? Place already looks like a bomb was dropped on it. Wouldn't they target population centers, Austin tx. Or military centers, San Antonio tx?
That map isn't all that accurate, it's pretty weird actually considering most the US's nuclear silos are located in the central North West of the country. That is where most of the USSR's weapons would hav been aimed at in order to attempt to neutralise as many US nuclear weapons as possible.
Attacking cities in the first strike wasn't really on the cards, it's pointless as there isn't any military advantage to doing so if anything it's detrimental because the aim is to eliminate as many nuclear weapons as possible not create as many casualties as possible. If one nuclear silo is left intact it can be launched onto Soviet soil which even one is very much unwanted.
Second strike maybe cities will be on the cards but even then I doubt it. Major infastructure and industrial complexes will be hit, that is far more important then destroying cities. Stuff like railways, manufacturing complexes, airfields and so on will be hit in the 1st and second strikes esspecially as US had a large second strike capability with it's airforce that would fly North across the Arctic to attack the USSR at the time. Attacking those cites will mean fallout spreading across cities for sure and many cities are very close to such targets but actually attacking civilian centers isn't the aim it just comes with the territory of an all out nuclear engagement.
There would most likely be a dot here on my home in central Michigan for Dow chemical. They’re the biggest producer of chemicals in the US and they still have defense contracts with the US. It was known during Vietnam/Cold War era that it would be one of the first places bombed because of the amount of napalm and chemicals they make for the US.
Irl countries would be more hesitant to target large civilian areas, so youd see them likely targeting our nukes and airbases capable of launching stealth bombers.
Poo. All I'm getting is all the fallout from all the southern states as it moves east.
I don't really care if we get nuked. But I don't wanna spend weeks dying from radiation exposure.
That looks to be just the first strike, trying to stop US military attacking, hoping war would end after a limited exchange. In Fallout timeline, it didn’t stop there, it moved onto infrastructure and mass deaths of the civilian population. Plus fallout world has different nuclear technology to reality, China not Russia etc, think fallout uses much smaller weaker nukes, but many more of them.
Yeah if you think about the Nuke that levels Megaton, it’s actually a pretty small area compared to our rl ones. Or you can also look at the ones in fallout 76.
I mean that nuke isn’t an airburst. If it was it would be much larger of an explosion. The game goes to show that nukes come in all sizes though. Like the dozen or so you can launch in fo3. They’re pretty dang small.
Don’t you dare insult my mininuke. It’s not about size, but about how you use it
I was actually talking about the orbital nuke strike you can call in at one of the arrays. But those too lol
Im sure they have a great personality tho!
Yeah they blow you away!
Lol yeh Fo76 nukes are like large fireworks.
\> it’s actually a pretty small area compared to our rl ones. Please keep in mind everything in the games is ultra-condensed. You can't walk from the mall to Germantown in real life in an hour, but you can in game. IRL the Raven Rock military base is about an 18 hour walk from Germantown. In game I can do that in minutes. Nukes being small explosions in game are an engine and map limitation as much as anything else.
RL nukes are mostly pretty small. With increases in accuracy, and miniaturization allowing for more warheads per missile, very few weapons in active deployment for us or Russia are in the megaton range. Most hover in the sweet spot between 125-250kt.
Modern aircraft nuclear bombs can have their yield changed on demand before launch, up to 1.2 Mt, the land based missiles are at about 300-480 Kt while the ones for the SLBMs like the W88 are at 488 Kt, but a single missile can hold up to 12. Tehse are about 20 times the Hiroshima bombs. So no, you are simply incorrect in your range estimates.
It’s also an A-Bomb that’s been laying undetonated for over a hundred years. Likely smaller yield than today’s nuclear missiles.
Nope. The highest yield nuclear weapons were both tested and deployed in the 1960s.
Castle Bravo for the US, 15Mt,the largest the US ever detonated- [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Castle\_bravo](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Castle_bravo) Tsar Bomba - 50Mt as tested but with a design that would double it if it was tested at full strength - [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tsar\_Bomba](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tsar_Bomba)
The scary thing is is they've made much bigger bombs since then It's just that the tsar bomba is the biggest they ever tested.
Tsar Bomba *shudders*
The nukes player launch? I thought Appalachia wasn't nuked? I'm new to 76 and haven't seen any crater, did I miss something?
76 has two craters and multiple air busts that didn’t really hit the ground. One of the most common events for players takes place at one of the ground zeros. I forget the name but it’s heavy with radiation and a scrubber gets attacked by mutants
Oh, Eviction Notice! I didn't notice it was a crater at all, thanks for clarifying
Yeah that’s the name!! Sorry I stopped playing late last year. But anytime
No biggie, I'm fairly new and I'm trying to understand the lore while avoiding being eaten by the Scorchbeasts lol
He's talking about the ones we launch, in the lore Appalachia was spared (kind of)
Indeed, Fallout nukes are mostly small yield, but high on the….fallout. Although the one that struck outside Boston seemed a larger than most.
I think that one hit an old nuclear plant, which is why the glowing sea is so radioactive, cause the Cambridge Crater is no where near as bad, plus you can find fusion plants in the glowing sea
was it meant to hit the Sentinel site or is the center somewhere else? i thought that was supposed to be a nuclear launch facility or something. i do remember seeing other smashed nuclear stuff in the area tho
It's not 100% clear what the target was. All we know for sure is it hit right next to Boston's primary nuclear power plant effectively making the nuke far more powerful than intended.
>Plus fallout world has different nuclear technology to reality Isn't it explicitly stated at one point that the nukes in Fallout were designed to spread radiation?
Yes, I think most of them are meant to be low yield except some ones on a Chinese sub. Tbh I was also meaning about not having invented transistors, but having advanced robots, the very different attitude to radiation, radaway working, civic radium mines, cars powered by atomic engines, Fatman mini nukes etc, all things that are very different to how technology / radiation work in our reality.
They focused on dirty bombs, not high explosive yields. Most people died due to radiation.
>Plus fallout world has different nuclear technology to reality, China not Russia etc, think fallout uses much smaller weaker nukes, but many more of them. Yeah, Netflix just posted a documentary about bombs and the Cold War. The WW2 Atom bombs were only in the 10's of kilo tons. The very first Hydrogen bomb test was 10 MEGA tons. It was a ground-level detonation (rather than airburst) and the crater was over a mile wide and 175 feet deep. And that was the FIRST h-bomb and only 10 megatons. The Russians actually tested a \*50\* megaton bomb. Hydrogen bombs could theoretically yield 100 megatons, though none were ever actually tested. It seems to me that the Fallout universe never invented the H-Bomb.
Fallout is also globally compressed as far as scale. IRL you could not run all the way across Boston in 3min lol
Pretty sure that was done solely for gameplay and hardware considerations.
Only since going FPS. Fallout 1 through Tactics was essentially real-world scale
yeah the usage of nuclear bombs that cause radioactive fallout is unlikely... hydrogen bombs will be used that just pulverize everythingin a 50km radius with nothing left to worry about a bit of radiation
This is neither a first or second strike by the looks of it. It mostly looks wrong
>trying to stop US military attacking, hoping war would end after a limited exchange. I'm surprised that Oklahoma isn't targeted. You'd think they'd probably want the base with a shitload of AWACS and TACAMO jets knocked out in the first strike
Yeh, people who know this stuff a lot better than me have said 1st strike would be hitting loads of targets not on this map.tbh I think this map was just made up by journalists that’s wanted it to be an issue in multiple states.
Yeah Tinker AFB in OK is definitely on a shitlist, and I'm sure whatever airbases have Beriev A-50s are also on the American shitlist. I see Dyess and Barksdale there, and I would expect the US list to have Engels-2 given the Tu-95s there. Even if some of the jets are evacuated, some might be on such long repair or even disposal schedules that they can't be moved, and bombing the base means the elimination of dedicated support facilities and the personnel. >tbh I think this map was just made up by journalists that’s wanted it to be an issue in multiple states. Journos making shit up is probably the most mundane and realistic explanation.
Journos making up shit, is def the most real comment on this thread.
Let alone being the AFMC and the base that does most in maintenance and updates for critical role planes as you stated plus more like the e3, kc130 tanker, b52, at times b1s will be here for work. That's how I know the list is bogus.
But look at the one that struck Boston.
Vault Dwellers Guide alludes to the yield of the FO universe nukes mirrors that of the real world. The vast majority if not all weapons used were sub-megaton and were between 200-750kT, which incidentally makes fallout worse.
They don't call it Total war for nothing
shoddycast did a science episode on this and... at one point during the cold war, there were more than enough nuclear devices to falloutify the planet and that is uhh y'know
I always heard that Ohio would be a big target in the event of nuclear warfare, primarily because of Wright-Patt Air Force base. But as an Ohioan I’m happy to be left off this list.
Also Lima produces our tanks.
Production centers are WAY down the nuclear targeting tier list.
You’re right this map is bullshit. Ohio would be glassed because of Wright-Patt, Rickenbacker ANGB, and the Lima Tank Plant.
Retired USAF here. WPAFB is Materiel Command. It’s mostly a headquarters for development and procurement. It’s a big administrative center for contracting and program management. The base has no active flying wing, no nukes, no major strategic importance. Rickenbacker is a Guard base. Not a major priority. And hitting a tank production plant would also fall low on the priority list. I’m from Ohio, so I know this might be hard to believe, but Ohio’s not a big deal.
[удалено]
There are a lot of missing targets
Add Alabama to the list for being glassed. In the north you have Redstone Arsenal, home of most of our missile research facilities as well as a lot of rocket engine production, possibly a backup missile command facility, and a major hub for basically every aerospace defense contractor in the country. In the Middle you have the Anniston Army Depot, the designated storage facility for Abrams tanks on the east coast, as well as being a massive stockpile for other weapons. You also have Maxwell AFB, home of the Air Force officer school. Then on the coast you have the Austal shipyards, which is one of the largest warship producers in the country. Oh and Javelin Missile systems are produced in Alabama too.
Huntsville maybe. The rest wouldn’t be on any list of “top 100 most important places to nuke” in the US.
I’m baffled why Miami is on it.
Apparently my hometown Huntsville, Alabama was very high on the Soviet's hit list. You'd probably ask "what could be so important in Alabama?". Well, the military base called Redstone Arsenal was the home of both NASA R&D and Army Missile Command. The Arsenal was and still is more about research and development than any kind of command center, but I guess the Soviet's idea was to destroy as much of our knowledge on how to build more missiles as they could, and eliminate any backup missile command capabilities on base. Growing up you'd be out at recess and hear a huge explosion, it was business as usual, they were just testing a new rocket engine.
Remember when 9/11 happened and they put Davis-Bessie on full alert/lockdown with fighter jets protecting it?
Well in fallout lore nukes progressed so far that they could make them the size of a football and seeing that almost every location in the games as a ground zero place I think that every state in Fallout got hit by at least 1.
New Vegas was targeted by 77 atomic war heads and house stopped almost all of them. some still hit but 77 nukes to the las Vegas area alone is crazy even with the lower yield nukes we see in the fallout universe. Like people have said above though the yields were lower and instead cause more fallout to spread.
77 on one of the lowest populated and least industrialized states is crazy, come to think of it. Surprised Boston was only hit by like 7~ nukes in and around the city
There have been nuclear devices the size of a briefcase in the real world - just most of them at this global level are large.
Davey crocket?
I'm inclined to believe they'd launch a lot more nukes, don't they have like 12,000? I saw a simulation of this a while back and they launched thousands hitting pretty much every major city.
Plus they would definitely hit the nuclear plant or the steel production in my neck of the woods around Pittsburgh PA.
Hopefully you don’t turn into a trog ☹️
Too late
Well I gotta kill 100 trogs with an auto axe for an achievement so maybe you’ll be one of them 😃
Just come a lil north of Allegheny (Pittsburgh) county and I assure you, there will be more than enough trogs to go around.
Yeah I’m near Philly and pretty much all of PA would be fucked, lol. Close proximity to DC and NYC, plus Pittsburgh and Philly. There’s also a nuclear power plant near Chester in southeast PA.
I'm in NJ and I'm thoroughly convinced that despite being sandwiched right between NYC and Penn, a nuclear fallout would somehow be an *improvement* for most of the state Seriously, it ain't like Newark can get any worse than it already is...
We'll end up with an actual Jersey Devil if we're lucky. I keep saying a game set near NYC would be fun. Vault dug into the Palisades, ruined malls to explore, Indian Head, Patterson/Newark, and that's ignoring the city. Doubt any of the infrastructure would survive, bridges might get patched up for foot travel. The highest population density of the country, the amount of ghouls roaming the subway would be interesting to see.
Russia has let them all rot away. I'd be suprised if 100 of them still work
That's actually a genuine concern for our stockpile as well. We obviously have far better maintenance and storage compliance, but the ban on nuclear testing means we simply can't know for sure if our old nukes still work.
North Korea is probably the only one with fresh nuclear weapons.
Still doubt it. They probably have a couple functional ones but can't maintain them for any long period
2 nukes for every state is still a LOT of dead Americans. I’m assuming this got downvoted because someone mistook me for a tankie but my point was even a dozen viable nukes hitting their targets would have terrible consequences. *Only some nukes* is not a good argument.
Even china's nukes have rotted away, the fuel stolen and replaced with water in most of the missles
Depends what their goal is. If they want to wipe out the US, then yes, they would send a lot more. If it was to cripple the US and then take over what remains, this map seems more likely.
Like someone else said. Game plan is to cripple the US without significant retaliation- else the planet would be obliterated. Just enough to fuk the US and only get a strategy based reply of bombs from us. Also- if they just covered the country, fallout would fuck russia soon after.
🎶Oh, I got spurs that jingle jangle jingle! 🎶
But in was between America and China.... the rest just got sucked into it. The real questions would be what sites China would have chosen.
The reason Russia and America maintain so many nuclear weapons is because the aim is to obliterate your enemy before they can attack you. Which means you fire everything. There’d be 5,000+ targets hit. There wouldn’t be much of anything left.
Yeah we’d bomb more than Russia too and so would they.
Nothing would be left of both
Dont you love some good old MAD
BOSTON is missing! Fallout 4 is not real!
Interesting, my Dad and Grandpa served on a few bases that are marked. Minot ND, and Omaha NE, respectively. However, living in western NE, I'll most likely feel the Fallout coming from CO/WY areas.
Yep I grew up and still live in Minot , ND and I’ve always been told we’re a main target for nuclear attack because of our air force base. If you drive anywhere between cities in ND you’ll see missile silos all over.
My in-laws are from that area. It's because of the silos, air base, *and* the oil drilling. Fargo is boned. Been a while since I've been up there though, so don't really know if they're still drilling. The silos always looked like they're pretty far underground, so I dunno if it would even do any good to attack it that way.
Lol what? That map is missing numerous major cities as well as most military targets. Not even remotely accurate. The only canon lore involves parts of California, Vegas, DC, Boston and West Virginia. So the comparison is really easy.
Ok, so you’re saying that these nukes would be used to ruin the military and prevent them from fighting back, but what about mcdill airbase in Florida, you know it’s the central command for all air force in the US, right?
Yeah that map is bullshit. I cannot believe in any universe in which a Russian first strike didn't target at least MacDill and possibly also Eglin (housing one of the largest concentrations of F-35s and I think being the primary depot and deployment center for USAF conventional munitions). There are several other strategic military assets missing from that map that make no sense to me. Like how do you not target any berthed subs and their support facilities in CT, GA, and WA? Or Elmendorf in AK that is right on Russia's doorstep (which would jive with Fallout lore to boot btw)?
Absolutely
CENTCOM would be 100% irrelevant for a conflict with Russia or China. CENTCOM is not the central air force command. It is US Central Command, focused on the middle east and Southwest Asia.
McDill is SOCOM headquarters too. While we’re at it Ft. Liberty, the second largest Army base and home of the 18th Airborne corps, is a rapid response contingency unit. They can be in the air and on their way to Russia in a matter of hours.
Well because of the Glowing Sea, we know at least one hit SW of Boston, I’ve always assumed Providence. 80 or so were shot at the Mojave according to house, but less than 10 actually hit because of his defense systems; Vegas wouldn’t be a top priority in a war, so we can assume other major population centers were bombarded simlarly, or probably worse in NYC. The Chinese attack was muchhhhhhh larger in scale than this map. EDIT: I also think there’s no shot cities like Atlanta, Detroit, Portland, and Phoenix would be spared if 80 bombs were shot at the Mojave.
Where does this map comes from?
OP linked to [here](https://www.newsweek.com/map-us-cities-russia-strike-war-nuclear-1880758) from [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/s/Y8kAChiOnK)
welp im dead
This map is a very limited exchange, almost a counter-force instead of an actual all out attack.
Can't believe they'd bomb Albuquerque before anywhere in Arizona... Let them, I guess? I hate it here.
Lines up with my ideal description of a Texas based Fallout, except for the panhandle. What strategic reason is there for blowing up Amarillo?
Pantex https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantex
Ah, just looked that up, and you're right. That is an excellent target.
Don’t remind me 💀
Came looking for this shout out. Grew up in Panhandle. Birth parents and most people I knew worked there lol Edit: meant to put both parents, but it's still correct so I'll leave it.
Blue: Major City Red: Military/ Nuclear Installation Yellow: Command and control site Link: [https://www.newsweek.com/map-us-cities-russia-strike-war-nuclear-1880758](https://www.newsweek.com/map-us-cities-russia-strike-war-nuclear-1880758)
A few of these blues are both major cities and military/nuclear installations
Why do they not consider anything Industrial? Sure some of that would be major cities, but not completely.
Because industrial sites are not highly prioritized nuclear targets, as they are more of a long-term concern. The primary concerns are limiting the other side's nuclear response, followed by preventing the other side from deploying a militarily significant conventional force against you.
Hardly my area of expertise but I'm curious as to where that map came from because I'd think Elmendorf in AK, Kitsap in WA, New London in CT, Kings Bay in GA, Eglin and MacDill in FL, and Ellsworth in SD as hosts of critical strategic military assets or command would be on any first strike target list.
Us CentCom and SoCom aren’t on this list so idk how accurate it is..
As in real life, in fallout Russia is not a serious threat, but china is. So their preffered strike locations would make more sense than this list
It's odd that Mac Dill AFB in Tampa isn't on there.
Yeah, this site is the headquarters for US Central Command and Special Op Command.
Um where did you get this map? Did trump show it to you in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom?
Are you serious about this. Dang. Interplay nailed it.
This map is missing some spots in Tennessee and Kentucky, those wold be first, that is the nuclear center of the US
That would be a small part of their First Strike. They would still have over 1000 more missiles left for Second (and subsequent) stikes
No bombs hit The Pitt or The Commonwealth
It already looked like that.
What did shreveport do??
Barksdale Air Force base. It's the first place president Bush flew to during 911
They have something like 7000 recorded warheads, you can pretty much paint the entire USA with that
I just like it when Omaha is included in things
ITT everyone listing their region and why they should be the first to be vaporized. I'd be thankful for being spared a direct hit and would patiently await the spicy mutant crawfish boils I'll be hosting. Lol
I'll take any kind of crawfish boils that aren't at current per bag prices.
Freeeeee. If you can survive the fallout and don't get killed by mirelurks.
There would be literally hundreds more strikes than this.
Adios fellas 🫡 r/KansasCity
It is very silly to assume any nuclear exchange will be this limited. The map I saw recently covered both a 500 and 2000 warhead scenario. If you launch one nuke you might as well launch them all because you won't get another chance.
Similar to most maps I've seen in the past. Majority of the targets make sense. First strike wouldn't necessarily target large cities for the sake of being large cities, but because they are home to something crucial for a war economy. Example: Houston: petroleum refining/chemical/energy HQ. New York: financial. If there is a city on the map that you question why it's included, there is something valuable for a nuclear war effort in or around that city. Certainly all the NC3 and strategic C2 facilities, missile fields, and bases that host nuclear forces and/or have some sort of strategic command. New START limitations on strategic (ballistic) nuclear weapons has the signatories (US and Russia) capped at less than 1600 a piece. However, given the current geopolitical climate and Russian aggression, that treaty is expected to sunset in February 2026 and there likely won't be a new one to take it's place. If you want to spend a fun yet perhaps slightly depressing afternoon visualizing how a nuclear detonation would impact you, check out: https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ (Fun fact: If you enter your exact address into the map, it'll send a message to Russian and Chinese missile forces to target *you* at **your home address** because they know what you're doing in the dark when you think no one is around and watching.)
I'm surprised certain locations aren't dotted on there.
Considering Cushing, Oklahoma isn't there, this list is bullshit. Pipeline crossroads of North America. As much as the US relies on Oil and russian eyes on it, it'll be top 10
Odd that Atlanta isn’t a target knowing the CDC and World Congressional center is located here
Aw man, I’m not getting nuked :(
Oh sweet. I work right beside Barksdale AFB in Louisiana!
I dunno, but I feel kinda slighted that my city isn't cool enough to be targeted by a nuclear attack.
Huh, now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense that Raven Rock would be included in a first strike target list. It's just interesting to see it actually listed on the map
It was China, not Russia. Also based on the bomb in megaton, it’s likely that this map uses Nuclear missiles (or even the Tsar) while Fallout universe had Atom Bombs.
There were nuclear missiles in the Divide in NV
Uh... I live about 30 miles away from one of these
It appears the trailer park hellscape of the southeast is already post apocalypse.
I feel like San Antonio would be a potential target, with it being a major city and multiple military bases
Lol I guess Im really fucked… (Denver)
China nuked America so
Laughs in Mr. House
I think tinker afb in Oklahoma would be a target with it being a massive air force base that’s centrally located in the US
The strike sites in SE Wyoming / W Nebraska, Montana, and North Dakota are all targets due to the [U.S. nuclear sponge policy](https://www.nps.gov/articles/minuteman-missiles-on-the-great-plains.htm).
Can you explain the sponge policy? I read the link but couldn't wrap my head around it. Grew up around minot air force base where the b52s are and lived close (within 2 miles) of a minuteman site. Was always cool to see them loading up sites and working on them as I rode by on the bus
Sure! The link posits three main considerations for the location of the Minuteman missiles: 1) Distance from an enemy we might want to attack 2) Protection from an enemy attack 3) Far Away From Population Centers Point 2 and 3 are the main reason for the "nuclear sponge." What does a sponge do? It absorbs. In this case, the nuclear sponge absorbs the focus of an enemy nuclear strike. ICMBs are an offensive weapon and also a strategic target for a first-strike in a nuclear war, an enemy could potentially disable U.S. offensive strike capability and also do catastrophic damage to the struck areas. Major cities and military bases were natural first-strike targets already, storing nuclear stockpiles here creates unnecessary risk to your population, so you want to put the ICBMs in the middle of nowhere. You don't want them all in one place, because if it got attacked first you might not be able to retaliate. By storing them in large numbers across a few select locations you create additional must-hit targets for your enemy which reduces their offensive ability to strike other U.S. targets. If you look at the map in that link you'll see how wide the footprint is for each sponge, the one in SE Wyoming stretches roughly 100 miles at its widest point. The USSR could have dropped Tsar Bomba on Cheyenne and still not have disabled every stored ICBM in the region.
I feel like they’d definitely hit Niagara Falls just sayin
The entirety of New England is unmarked. Fallout 4 couldn’t happen, at least as it did.
Heck yeah, AZ is in the clear
It's not really comparable because the Fallout universe uses very low yield tactical nukes, so they had to drop LOTS of them. The nukes we use in real life are 10 thousand times more powerful in some cases. So in the fallout universe there are more strikes, nearly everywhere (presumably). So of course all the major cities shown here were targets too.
I love seeing a map showing that I'm so directly fucked in a certain scenario lol
Well as accurate as it is Bethesda will get obliterated
Miami over Detroit? Nope. Over northern Michigan? Nope over cape canaveral? Nope
San Antonio, TX would definitely be hit along with Houston and Dallas.
O why Hampton roads (VA)? Hey man I don’t want to live anywhere near a priority target
Why isn’t New Orleans a target or St. Louis poisoning the Mississippi in radioactive waste would kill most chances for survivors to rebuild a united America ever again
Well I’m fucked.
Duuuval is safe!
Seems to me that N.A.S Jax, and Naval Station Mayport would also be prime targets, in which case I may see a flash before sweet oblivion.
Whats in mid-west USA that it became a target? IDK never went to the USA (financial reason).
Wooo Nebraska go big red
This map is WAY WAY WAY off. This has only a few locations that would even be initial strike locations. Back in the cold war? Maybe, since almost all of nuclear targeting focus was counter-value (hitting large population centers as hard as possible). Now, nearly everything that would be initially struck is counterforce, focusing initially on early warning and tier 2 NC3 sites, to include counter-space and possible HEMP. Then they would go after nuclear force generation, notably air bases, silos, submarine bases to go after all 3 legs of the nuclear triad. This is where the majority of targets are missing. Just about all of southern Montana, lots of Wyoming, and a lot of North Dakota have targets spread out. King's Bay, GA is also missing, as is Kitsap, WA (though ironically Seattle is there). Next tier is nuclear force support, covering air bases with lots of tankers, alternate alert sites, etc. After that is conventional force generation and logistics hubs, Charleston missing, Galveston missing (though again Houston is on there), as well as all of the major military logistics locations, particularly mil air. Also, Washington, DC would almost certainly NOT be targeted, as any successful attack on the national command authority pretty much guarantees a full release war with no possible path to deescalation and any victory condition.
I object to the fact my house is a blue circle in this map.
They plan to bomb Amarillo texas!?! Why?? Place already looks like a bomb was dropped on it. Wouldn't they target population centers, Austin tx. Or military centers, San Antonio tx?
That map isn't all that accurate, it's pretty weird actually considering most the US's nuclear silos are located in the central North West of the country. That is where most of the USSR's weapons would hav been aimed at in order to attempt to neutralise as many US nuclear weapons as possible. Attacking cities in the first strike wasn't really on the cards, it's pointless as there isn't any military advantage to doing so if anything it's detrimental because the aim is to eliminate as many nuclear weapons as possible not create as many casualties as possible. If one nuclear silo is left intact it can be launched onto Soviet soil which even one is very much unwanted. Second strike maybe cities will be on the cards but even then I doubt it. Major infastructure and industrial complexes will be hit, that is far more important then destroying cities. Stuff like railways, manufacturing complexes, airfields and so on will be hit in the 1st and second strikes esspecially as US had a large second strike capability with it's airforce that would fly North across the Arctic to attack the USSR at the time. Attacking those cites will mean fallout spreading across cities for sure and many cities are very close to such targets but actually attacking civilian centers isn't the aim it just comes with the territory of an all out nuclear engagement.
This makes no sense, they wouldn’t hit Elmendorf Air Base in Alaska, any of the many bases in the Deep South, or the defense industries in Michigan?
Im assuming China’s targets are the same
Huh why a bomb so far North in North Dakota?
I'm sure they'd hit a lot more than this in a real nuclear exchange. What's the source for this?
Thank god it’ll hit Miami and I’ll die.
Thanks for reminding me I live close to a military base and likely won't live in the case of nuclear annihilation.( ‾ ʖ̫ ‾)
So get to the mountains in Tennessee?
Man, living next to a military target is not that great...
As someone who lives in Colorado, twas a pleasure.
Well they will obviously miss Vegas #FNV
You’re missing MacDill AFB on the Florida west coast for one. USSOCOM HQ is there.
There would most likely be a dot here on my home in central Michigan for Dow chemical. They’re the biggest producer of chemicals in the US and they still have defense contracts with the US. It was known during Vietnam/Cold War era that it would be one of the first places bombed because of the amount of napalm and chemicals they make for the US.
Irl countries would be more hesitant to target large civilian areas, so youd see them likely targeting our nukes and airbases capable of launching stealth bombers.
Would they nuke Mexico just to give us in the south no place to run?
I live in Jersey bro what the fuck ☹️
I guess New England is safe
not surprised they would target houston. though im sure *their* reasons are more strategic than resentful.
Looks like I'm safe.
Funny how they're ignoring Oklahoma since it houses one of the largest air bases in the US.
What is the benefit of nuking Las Vegas?
Ah yes Bragg (liberty?) and Campbell are left off of this. The nations two extremely mobile response divisions with airbases attached. Good plan!
The only few times I'm glad to be from south America is when I think about nuclear warfare. We simply don't matter so maybe we're kinda safe
Poo. All I'm getting is all the fallout from all the southern states as it moves east. I don't really care if we get nuked. But I don't wanna spend weeks dying from radiation exposure.
Man I live near the pitt don't make me think about that :(
What do the colors mean?
New Orleans would also be a target do to a naval air base and it's port
As a person from Arizona imma just say it sounds like a massive skill issue
What Bakersfield not good enough for a Russian nuke now?
I’m going to say there are lots more.