A team from Science and Global Security put together a scenario of what could happen if a nuclear war broke out between Russia and the US, starting with an attack on the NATO countries of Europe. The beginning is scary enough, but when the Americans get involved, we find out what a nuclear arsenal really is.

This four-minute audio-visual piece is based on independent assessments of current U.S. and Russian force postures, nuclear war plans, and nuclear weapons targets. It uses extensive data sets of the nuclear weapons currently deployed, weapon yields, and possible targets for particular weapons, as well as the order of battle estimating which weapons go to which targets in which order in which phase of the war to show the evolution of the nuclear conflict from tactical, to strategic to city-targeting phases.

The casualty count, estimated to be 90 million within just a few hours, does not include victims of radioactive fallout or lack of resources after the destruction. Read more about the simulation at the Science and Global Security website.

Tags: nuclear war, simulation, war