A Question

The cobalt bomb is the world-destroying radiation weapon featured in Dr. Strangelove.

But it is not science fiction.

In fact, the cobalt bomb was possible within one year of the development of the US atomic bomb in 1945. It's easy to make. A cobalt bomb is simply an atomic bomb surrounded by a layer of cobalt. It doesn't increase the explosive yield, but it vastly increases the radioactive fallout - by a factor of 1,000 times. That's why cobalt bombs are called "dirty" bombs - as compared with "ordinary" atomic bombs!

And even the "ordinary" atomic bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki themselves killed mainly by radiation, not from the blast itself. About 170,000 people died from the radiation at Hiroshima. How many could die from the radiation of a single Hiroshima style bomb multiplied 1,000 times by cobalt?

Do the math.

Granted, a cobalt bomb based on a Hiroshima type bomb of "only" 15 kilotons would not have the power of the humanity-destroying 20 megaton Dr. Strangelove bombs, but it would still have lethal potential not only in the Indian subcontinent, but wherever winds might take the radiation.

Unlike plutonium and enriched uranium, cobalt is abundant and easily available to any government that wants it. It's widely used in hospitals, for example. The technology for using it in a bomb is a no-brainer. Both sides have strong incentives for making weapons of exceptional lethality.

So the relevant question that is missing from all calculations and discussions of a prospective war between India and Pakistan is ---

Why is no one discussing cobalt bombs?