Eli5 what’s the difference between a “tactical” nuke, and just an ordinary nuke?
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The differences are in *yield*, *range*, and *purpose*. “Strategic” is the counterpart to “tactical” in this context.
**Strategy** is the action plan that takes you where you want to go, the **tactics** are the individual steps and actions that will get you there.
[Tactical nukes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_nuclear_weapon) are smaller, and they’re usually meant to be delivered “in-theatre”, i.e., within the context of a particular engagement. They’re a “tactic” for achieving a specific limited mission goal.
Like, say, you absolutely have to stop an invading column from crossing a particular bridge, a tactical nuke might be a really effective way of taking out that crossing permanently.
Or if you only need to wreck one particular forward base without damaging a nearby population center, you use a tactical nuke.
They’re usually delivered by short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, torpedoes, depth charges, etc. There were even a few designed to be delivered by [artillery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_artillery) (but nobody deploys those anymore – they weren’t actually very practical). So, within a few km, up to a few hundred km.
They’re lower-yield: as small as .07 kilotons (72 tons TNT-equivalent), up to 100kt.
As opposed to “strategic” weapons, which are intended to achieve higher-level aims, like attempting to preempt your opponent’s ability to shoot back.
Strategic weapons tend to have higher yields, 100kt up to several megatons (a thousand kt is 1Mt), and they’re generally delivered by things like Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM), Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM), or strategic bombers (like the B-52 or [TU-95](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95)) via gravity bombs or air-launched cruise missiles.
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