I would hazard a guess at none, unless you want to trigger mutualy assured destruction with the Russians.

GOP, That number is highly classified. But the response would be overwhelming and far out of proportion to the attack. The minimum number of retaliatory strikes would certainly be in the hundreds and possibly even a few thousand. One SSBN alone can bring almost 200 warheads to a party, not to mention ICBMs and bombers. And then thats just the immediate retaliation. There would almost certainly be follow up strikes after the BDA and on targets of opportunity.

>"I would hazard a guess at none, unless you want to trigger mutualy assured destruction with the Russians."< Yeah, right. We would strike China very hard, and the nukes would not even effect Russia

I think GOP is right, doesnt the airstream from China head east? In other words away from Russia. The Russians would probably be happy to sit and watch two of their largest threats beating the crap outta each other.

As much as I have faith in Russias early warning technoogy - do you really think they would be able to tell 100% that all those ballistic missiles were heading a bit South of them? And radioactive clouds would doubtless travel to Russia at least in part.

Lets follow Yimmys version of Russian logic. Two countries get into a nuclear war. So lets do something to ensure we dont miss out on getting nuked too. Pass the vodka please! Now for US logic. "Hey Mr. President, China just nuked us." "Really" "Yeah they did" "Well nuke'em back" "but Sir..." "JUST DO IT" "But sir, what about the Russians" "What about em" "They might get mad" "oh yeah huh" "yeah" "alright, forget it then." "forgotten"

>>>As much as I have faith in Russias early warning technoogy - do you really think they would be able to tell 100% that all those ballistic missiles were heading a bit South of them?<<< ---Two things #1 Who cares #2 Ya think they might have an Idea since China just nuked us >>>And radioactive clouds would doubtless travel to Russia at least in part.<<< ---And those clouds would be no more dangerous than all the nuclear testing in CONUS or other places. The most severe fall out would be local.

given this scenario of a single ICBM out of the blue, I'd expect the US retaliation would be an almost-instant counterforce strike on China's remaining nuclear assets. So the number of warheads fired would be whatever's necessary to achieve that.

I think the nuclear arms race and M.A.D is lost on some people.

Hows that?