WAR

Takes significantly more than a few drones. The predators carry two Hellfires which each can take out a tank and perhaps anything or person nearby but as they only have 250 it would take a fair few runs to take out just the tanks. We are a while away still from where unmanned combat becomes more than just being a support force.

As for a Nuke if America launched Russia would also automatically so it’s not like that’s viable

 

The USA isn’t risking their small number of UAV's against a more advanced nation than the nations they are using them in though. Russia has both aircraft and anti aircraft weapons that can take them down. And seeing as the likes of ISIS have taken some down with their less advanced weapons they risk taking a fair amount of losses when the numbers they have are fairly small while not really doing damage.

We might be in a world where some of the battle can be done remotely and there are other ways the battle can be fought alongside conventional warfare but we are not at a point yet where conventional warfare isn't still the most effective and preferred method

 

Nuclear weapons are not a war deterrent, as Pakistan and India have shown. They are a deterrent to use such weapons in a war. Unless you absolutely think the other side is crazy enough to use nukes and cause the whole world to be destroyed then they don't deter war

 

I didn't mean literally but Russia alone has enough to take out every major city in the US, UK, France and a number of other countries who might be on the 'other side'. These countries would hit Russia back in the same way and any country they think would side with Russia and had nukes. You would likely see all 8 nuclear-capable countries taken off the board which would have a massive impact on the world even for those not hit because not only would food supplies in these countries be decimated but the fallout would cause issues in other countries as well

And some of the bombs countries have are pretty powerful. Here is the radius for Russia's biggest one (and they have a few of them) if it was dropped on Bradford



The inner circle is the fireball radius, takes out Bradford and the surrounding area, almost reaching leeds

The next is the major black radius which would kill people and do a lot of damage to buildings and infrastructure

Then it's the thermal radiation radius which would cause 3rd-degree burns. finally its the minor Blast damage. While the rest of the nuclear powers don't have anything anywhere near that level, while Russia could take out basically all the UK in maybe 3 or 4 of those, the US would probably need about 30+ to take out all the UK its still enough to pretty much end the earth as we know it if only the nuclear powers were to get into a chain reaction caused by one person launching.

Again unless people really think someone is mad enough to start that nukes don't deter conventional war