What exactly was the plan in Pacific Rim?

Question

While Raleigh is being shown around the shatterdome he asks Pentecost what the strategy is, the Field Marshal describes using a nuke and having a 'plan'.

Raleigh: Wait, running point on what? You haven't told me what I'm doing here yet.

Pentecoste: We're going for the Breach, Mr. Becket. We're gonna strap a 2400 pound thermonuclear warhead to Striker's back. Detonate an equivalent of 1.2 million tons of TNT. And you and two other Jaegers will be running defense for them.

Raleigh: Thought we were the resistance. Where'd you get something that big?

Pentecoste: See the Russians back there? They can get us anything.

Raleigh: Sir, we've hit the Breach before. It doesn't work. Nothing goes through. What's changed?

Pentecoste: I've got a plan. I need you ready.

Raleigh said they'd already "hit the breach" so what exactly was Pentecost planning to do different before Newt and Gotleib interrupted with the new information?

I'm struggling with formatting a little, hopefully someone on a desktop can format the quote properly? — Liath, Apr 30 '16 at 10:08
Done. Needed > before each new line and it needed line breaks. — Wad Cheber, Apr 30 '16 at 10:10
Thanks, it's very tricky on a phone because you don't have the format buttons — Liath, Apr 30 '16 at 10:11
I also edited out some irrelevant dialogue. You should add character names at some point. — Wad Cheber, Apr 30 '16 at 10:11
@Liath - And I edited the text so that it looks nice and fancy. Team effort. — Valorum, Apr 30 '16 at 10:27
I feel like we shouldn't expect brilliant planning from these people. Their response to being attacked by giant space monsters was "Let's build really big robots to punch them in the face!" — Wad Cheber, Apr 30 '16 at 19:58

Valorum · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-30T10:59:47.763

The original Operation Pitfall plan was to deliver a nuclear payload directly to the breach site, just as a Kaiju was arriving on our side. The hope was that that this (unlike prior efforts to simply throw missiles at the gate at random times of day) would allow the nuke to penetrate the breach gate and to destroy it.

This memo, taken from the film's official novelisation gives us an idea of the rationale behind it.

Operation Pitfall is a success, despite each of its individual tactical elements failing. The original mission plan called for Striker Eureka to deliver a nuclear payload into the Breach while Crimson Typhoon, Cherno Alpha, and Gipsy Danger provided a picket line of defense against any kaiju countermeasures.

For the record, this plan would have failed. The theory that the gate was only shielded when it wasn't open was, in fact incorrect. In fact, the gate was shielded at all times, relying on a DNA scanner to determine what to allow through (both matter and energy).

What exactly was the plan in Pacific Rim?

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