Originally Posted by
tartare
Yes, you are correct - such a bomb would not require crew shielding.
But there is no way on earth an un-authorised commercial airliner, let alone one carrying a Hiroshima type weapon would be able to get anywhere near Israeli airspace without the IAF knowing and shooting it down first.
The Hiroshima gun-type weapon would therefore need to be surface delivered, by a truck (it's 10 feet long, 2 feet wide and weighs 4.4 tons).
There might be a remote chance of such a truck making it's way into a major Israeli population centre undetected by the Israeli army, Shin Bet, the Aman or Mossad.
If it was then detonated, then yes it would cause widespread devastation in a densely populated city like Tel Aviv (having been there).
Likelihood? Mossad's human intelligence in Iran is such that it knew the location of the Iranian military leaders and scientists' bedrooms in the buildings it struck. Not just the building, the exact side and height of the building where to strike.
Israel is being fed measurement and signature intelligence by the US, and has it's own highly capable imagery and signals intelligence capabilities.
I highly doubt the likelihood of such a device being able to be delivered in reality - unless I am missing something.
Agree with all you say.
My concern is the seeming reluctance on some parts to even accept that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon. Uranium needs enriching to only 3% to 5% to efficiently run a nuclear reactor. Why is it now at around 60% and why are/were the enrichment centres buried so deep underground?