Planned weapons

According to a report in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, there are several new ideas under consideration for nuclear weapons. As well as the EMP bomb, there is a proposal for a small-yield earthquake bomb which would be designed to burrow underground to destroy command bunkers which even the most advanced conventional bombs could never reach. Another proposal is for a so-called "micro-nuke" with a destructive force equivalent to only 100 tonnes of high explosive, which would intercept Third World ballistic missiles possibly armed with chemical warheads. Larger bombs or missile warheads are already available.

In 1993 a Russian ultranationalist leader revealed that Russia was developing a new weapon, termed the Elipton, which had the capacity to "annihilate the whole world". Commentators believed that it could be one originally conceived for use in space in response to the Strategic Defence Initiative of the USA.