Terminator: Post Judgment Day world outside America

[Shroom Man 777]

They did use bioweapons in T:SCC. As for the movies, we only get a few minutes glimpse of the Future War and I don't think we can get a full summation of all of Skynet's weapons and tactics (SWAT!) for the decades-long war from so little screentime.

For all we know, Skynet ended up resorting to endless waves of HKs flanked by walking armies of steel skellingtons because the Resistance had ruined the shit out of its WMD production lines.

[Starglider]

It's not like radiation is going to harm its robotic army.

Actually rad hardening advanced processors is very difficult - satellites and spacecraft tend to use processors one to two decades behind the state of the art, with relatively thick shielding (given the mass constraints), and they're still vulnerable to solar storms and use redundant processors and heavy error checking/correction. That said fallout is mostly alpha and beta, which are mostly harmless to robots, with no hard X-rays and relatively little gamma after the initial burst.

[Sarevok]

For all we know, Skynet ended up resorting to endless waves of HKs flanked by walking armies of steel skellingtons because the Resistance had ruined the shit out of its WMD production lines.

Why is it that the skeleton warriors take the limelight in Skynet army ? In T2 I thought the robot skeletons got used because Skynet was said to be losing and was forced to send whatever it had, including half complete infiltrators. It is cool when stories focus on cyborg infiltrators since they raise feelings a dumpster truck looking killbot won't. But in the battlefield said dumpster truck looking robot would be lot more powerful than a humanoid skeleton. Ideally the iconic poster cover for the grim dark gritty (TM) future would not be a T-800 but some Bolo like unstoppable tank or exotic hypersonic stealth UCAVs that humans have no defense against.

[Shroom Man 777]

For all we know, Skynet ended up resorting to endless waves of HKs flanked by walking armies of steel skellingtons because the Resistance had ruined the shit out of its WMD production lines. Which would be crucial and heavily defended vital installations.

Skynet's core in the Cheyenne Mountain complex is a crucial and heavily defended vital installation. Which the Resistance was on the verge of ruining the shit out of. Skynet ended up resorting to endless waves of HKs flanked by walking armies of steel skellingtons, we all know.

The Resistance ruined a lot of shit.

[Darth Smiley]

Did Skynet build any nukes after Judgement Day, or keep some in reserve? If so, it should logically build cobalt bombs. The radiation is far more persistent and deadly than a normal nuke, and it could launch secondary strikes to wipe out survivors outside North America or to make "fire breaks", huge swaths of land so radioactive that no human army could cross it to attack Skynet without suffering casualties. It's not like radiation is going to harm its robotic army.

It actually only used 2/3 of its strategic weapons during Judgment Day, then proceeded to use the remaining weapons a year or two later to destroy those areas that had become hubs for the recovery.

[Peptuck]

For all we know, Skynet ended up resorting to endless waves of HKs flanked by walking armies of steel skellingtons because the Resistance had ruined the shit out of its WMD production lines. Which would be crucial and heavily defended vital installations.

Hell, that could be the reason why that nuclear power plant was so important for Skynet. Those spent fuel rods could be very useful for low-grade WMDs....

[MJ12 Commando]

Actually rad hardening advanced processors is very difficult - satellites and spacecraft tend to use processors one to two decades behind the state of the art, with relatively thick shielding (given the mass constraints), and they're still vulnerable to solar storms and use redundant processors and heavy error checking/correction. That said fallout is mostly alpha and beta, which are mostly harmless to robots, with no hard X-rays and relatively little gamma after the initial burst.

That's because silicon is IIRC particularly vulnerable to EMP/EMI, isn't it? I recall reading that other semiconductors like Gallium Arsenide and the like have better resistances to that kind of stuff. Given how tiny the Terminator's CPU is for its processing power I have a feeling that it isn't standard silicon.

And it's probably not going to be walking robots through mushroom clouds anyways, so it's kinda moot.