The missing cruise missile had a W80 warhead with a dialable yield of 5 to 150 kt. You can do a lot of damage to NYC with that yield. But detonate it at 40,000 ft over the NE corridor and you fry every semiconductor from DC to NYC. Suddenly only China and Russia are Superpowers.
You would need a modern aircraft with 7,000 mi range that you could insert into the stream of flights between Europe and the US.
