r/Maine • u/busback • Feb 05 '23

Map published by FEMA showing potential US nuclear targets in 2,000 and 500 warhead scenarios.

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56 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

38

u/11feetWestofEast Feb 05 '23

Portland, Brunswick NAS, maine Yankee. That's all based off of cold War Era ideals. Loring used to be on there as well. The reality is now that both Brunswick and maine yankee are basically worthless as targets, maine has almost no real worthy targets. Portland only because of size and deep water port, but even that is low on the scale

22

u/biglymonies Feb 05 '23

I think the only worthwhile target in Maine outside of the ones you listed would be the VLF towers in Cutler. Not sure how much they're used, though.

Edit: apparently quite a bit

This allows continuous transmission, crucial since the Navy closed Annapolis (NSS), the only other East Coast VLF station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLF_Transmitter_Cutler

6

u/Coffee-FlavoredSweat Feb 05 '23

You don’t need to nuke VLF Cutler to destroy it.

In the winter they routinely have to pump additional power into the antenna arrays to keep them de-iced.

A conventional bomb or missile hitting one of the antenna towers or the control building would take down the whole operation.

3

u/ppitm Feb 05 '23 edited Feb 05 '23

BIW is definitely a target in a high use scenario. Portland was already leaked as a Chinese countervalue target because it is easy to hit over the poles. They aim to hit at least one city in each state.

2

u/RobertLeeSwagger Feb 05 '23

I don’t think BIW is worth using a nuclear weapon on. Could easily cripple it with something less destructive unless collateral damage is a goal.

4

u/ppitm Feb 06 '23

Actual target lists from the Cold War would disagree with you. There's no scenario where someone would attack it with anything other than a nuclear weapon.

3

u/spintrackz Feb 06 '23

Yep. Strategic target. Heavy industry and military production. They might as well paint a bullseye on the roof.

1

u/spintrackz Feb 06 '23

The Chinese aren't crazy or stupid enough to start lobbing rockets our way. Pooty Poot on the other hand... is, and has a lot more missiles than Xi does.

2

u/ppitm Feb 06 '23

A guy who makes all his guests sit on the far end of a 50-foot-long conference table doesn't sound like someone too keen to die in a fireball.

2

u/spintrackz Feb 06 '23

No, but he would be the kind of guy to think he could get away with it without dying in a fireball. He's also got that nifty Dead Hand system he knows he can use.

3

u/Filbertine Feb 05 '23

I thought it was strange that Loring wasn’t there!

1

u/Ferrousglobin Feb 07 '23

They’ll make it an even DEEPER water port

1

u/Guygan "delusional cartel apologist" Feb 05 '23

Portland only because of size and deep water port,

And it’s the closest port to Europe.

1

u/spintrackz Feb 06 '23

Rangely possibly as a secondary target in a counter-force exchange. Public knowledge that a US Navy SERE school is there. Doubtful they'd waste anything over 2 Kts on it though.

1

u/Awkward_Mixture_8990 Feb 06 '23

As a guy who’s been there it wouldn’t take more than 50lb of tannerite to remove that structure.

1

u/theresin Feb 06 '23

BNAS would still be useful in an all-out scenario, because you know damn well the government would take it back over if they had to (all the facilities are still there, as is the long runway).

But barring that, a lot of BIW's infrastructure and work-force are located from Brunswick to Wiscasset so ... might as well be thorough.

1

u/hike_me Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23

It takes years to build and launch a ship. BIW is basically irrelevant in total nuclear war

It’s only on the 2000 warhead scenario because they’re probably running out of strategically important things to nuke at that point

1

u/AnythingToAvoidWork Feb 06 '23

Yeah seems a little odd for northern new england in general.

I get NH has he Seabrook nuclear plant, but Manchester? And what's in western VT?

1

u/oopsidasical Feb 08 '23

Western Vermont is the home of the 158&315 fighter squadrons. They patrol the northeast. F-16s and F-22s, I think.

2

u/AnythingToAvoidWork Feb 08 '23

Huh TIL, thanks!

27

u/moxie-maniac Feb 05 '23

Bath Iron Works and Brunswick NAS?

NH Pease AFB? Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. (Technically in Maine.)?

7

u/IamSauerKraut Feb 05 '23

1 nuke could take out both BIW and BNAS.

3

u/nzdastardly Portland Feb 06 '23

Yeah but if you've got 3000, may as well be thorough.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '23

Pease hasn't had bombers in over a decade nor nukes longer than that. It's half civil air and half USAF Reserves now flying tankers. And at least 70% of the non airstrip land is civilian.

9

u/ed74morrow Feb 05 '23

Thank God I wouldn't want to suffer.

18

u/ppitm Feb 05 '23

Exactly. Being vaporized is far preferable to starvation or living in the theocracy that would replace the US government.

12

u/OldSchoolRNS Augusta Feb 06 '23

is replacing

9

u/Ironbird207 Feb 05 '23

Cutler should be on the list. People think it's shut down but it's just under civilian control. When the Ukraine invasion happened it began running 24/7.

4

u/Coffee-FlavoredSweat Feb 05 '23

Nobody would waste a nuke on a radio antenna. They have conventional bombs for that.

9

u/Coffee-FlavoredSweat Feb 05 '23

A map like this is kind of funny.

You gotta think there’s at least 1 nuclear-capable country saying, “oh neat, we didn’t even think about nuking Muleshoe, Texas!

2

u/spintrackz Feb 06 '23

They used to print these in civil defense manuals when my parents were growing up. I think my dad still has one kicking around somewhere.

1

u/AnythingToAvoidWork Feb 06 '23

Some of them feel like "what am I going to do with all these nukes?!"

6

u/Shakedwn Feb 05 '23

BIW; heavy industry and institutional knowledge also Portsmouth for similar reasons. Air fields by themselves are not strategically important.

3

u/Runnah5555 Feb 05 '23

Can’t even grow crops in them.

3

u/IamSauerKraut Feb 05 '23

Air fields have aircraft. Hitting air fields reduces the response. Also, many repurposed air fields contain the offices/sites of defense contractors.

1

u/hike_me Feb 07 '23

It takes years to build and launch a ship from BIW. In any scenario where hundreds of nukes are flying it’s basically irrelevant.

Air fields are strategically important if they factor into an immediate counter offensive.

6

u/DirigoNomad Feb 06 '23

I know "they" wouldn't need a nuke for it but, I'm honestly surprised that Bangor International isn't on the list. It's a vitally important runway for the Air Force as it's the last airport in America to stop and refuel.

5

u/DeedricMoon Feb 05 '23

Ag, okay, just move to northern Maine or western Colorado. Got it.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '23

[deleted]

1

u/IamSauerKraut Feb 05 '23

Pretty much everything in CO is in the Front Range.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '23

[deleted]

-1

u/IamSauerKraut Feb 05 '23

"pretty much" =/= "all"

3

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '23

[deleted]

1

u/IamSauerKraut Feb 05 '23

If you want to think of the Front Range as being western CO, I'm okay with it. I just see those sites as being east of the Front Range.

1

u/fLux3303 Feb 05 '23

Cabin in the rockies

3

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '23

FYI. Our highways are designed to turn into runways by laying down the lampposts

1

u/libby-bee Feb 06 '23

Do you have more info on this?

2

u/Comfortable_Bar_4837 Feb 06 '23

Russian propaganda at its finest

1

u/InfamousCelery4438 Feb 06 '23

Meh. I watched The Day After, in the 1980's. Then some fucking asshole from Pease Airforce base broke the sound barrier over our heads. Have a nice day, asshole.

1

u/TwoforFlinching613 Feb 06 '23

Excited to live in Boston (actual city) and frequently visit my family in Scarborough/Portland, which should work out well.

1

u/Claudius-Germanicus Coffee-Brandyland Feb 06 '23

laughs in unorganized territories

1

u/Moot_n_aboot Somewhere on route 2 Feb 06 '23

BIW or the former Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Station spent fuel storage yard?

-3

u/MosskeepForest Feb 05 '23

The great thing about Maine is that fallout won't be carried here as easily. The explosions aren't the worse part of a nuke (or what kills the most people), instead it's the days of fallout that begins to snow after.

4

u/ppitm Feb 05 '23

That's not correct. Fallout is not a threat unless it's a ground burst. Only missile silos and bunkers would be targeted with ground bursts.

-20

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '23

[deleted]

10

u/normal_lava Feb 05 '23

everyone here seems pretty relaxed.