Stopping ICBMS

[gofaster]

Originally posted by fdiron
Hypothetical situation:  U.S. recieves a warning that a rogue nation is going to launch 20 nuclear ICBMS at major cities in the U.S.  The missles launch and are inbound to the U.S.  Is there any way that the U.S. could shoot down the missles?

Are you kidding me?  In the mid-80's, there were thousands of teenagers training to do this very thing - without the guidance of their parents!  I remember spending hours at the console, learning the technology and figuring out the switches, working the simulators...the tricky part was timing the interceptor missiles to detonate on cue so that they could trigger the ICBMs to destruct.  

Man, talk about stress!

Watching the slender line of an incoming warhead as it plummeted from its zenith through the stratosphere, streaking towards major cities, killing thousands of innocent civilians.  My hands would be shaking, palms greasy with sweat as I flipped the switches and spun the control ball.  My heart tried to climb out of my throat every time my interceptor missile overshot the vapor trail of the inbound nuke. Horrors!  

A few years later, the code was updated to improve the graphics, but the program itself was no longer on the forefront of project development schedules.

[john9001]

Hypothetical situation: where is a "rogue nation " going to get 20 nuclear ICBMS ?? and why would they attack the USA, also the USA can track where the launch came from.

FYI, the US has already shot down incoming dummy ICBM warheads, it's one of the "wastfull military spending programs" that you liberals always want to cut.

[Sikboy]

uh oh, I think this thread just switched gears!

-Sikboy

[funkedup]

Originally posted by fdiron
Hypothetical situation:  U.S. recieves a warning that a rogue nation is going to launch 20 nuclear ICBMS at major cities in the U.S.  The missles launch and are inbound to the U.S.  Is there any way that the U.S. could shoot down the missles?  Also, if the U.S. had information about which cities were going to be hit, would scrambled fighters be able to shoot down the individual warheads once they seperated from the ICBM?

NO.  If we recieve warning that a rogue nation is going to launch 20 nuclear ICBMs at major cities in the U.S., we will turn that nation into a smoking glass parking lot well before they launch anything at us.

[funkedup]

Originally posted by john9001
FYI, the US has already shot down incoming dummy ICBM warheads, it's one of the "wastfull military spending programs" that you liberals always want to cut.

Yep we had a fully operational system of this sort in the mid-70's.  But "wiser heads" decided to eliminate it to focus on important things like subsidizing mediocrity and encouraging sloth.

[Sikboy]

Originally posted by funkedup


Yep we had a fully operational system of this sort in the mid-70's.  But "wiser heads" decided to eliminate it to focus on important things like subsidizing mediocrity and encouraging sloth.

Um, I don't think that any of our programs were developed enough to prevent the type of attack described. Even Safeguard and Sentinel with their "use a nuke to kill a nuke" wouldn't have been capable of intercepting this attack after 1972 (assuming they even could before 1972).

-Sikboy

[AKSWulfe]

The 70s program= Star Wars program?

Or the missile defense plan using land based missles to intercept inbound ICBMs?

In any event, neither was reliable.

A couple of ICBMs may be stopped, the rest will travel to their target... or worse, explode in the atmosphere and rain radioactive material on the world for the next decade.

Do I think they should of stopped development of this? Not at all, eventually they would get atleast 70% reliable.

OTOH, don't believe that these defense systems would of done much more than stopping one nuke safely, while the rest travel to their intended targets or detonate in the atmosphere.

Nukes are nukes, there's no safe way to stop 'em.
-SW

[Sikboy]

Originally posted by AKSWulfe
The 70s program= Star Wars program?

No, that came in the 80's

Or the missile defense plan using land based missles to intercept inbound ICBMs?

Yep, that's more like it. Sentinel and Safeguard were the two programs from the late 60's into the 70's. They were made up of land based interceptor missiles with Nuclear warheads. They are similar in nature to the "Golash" (NATO Codeman, I forget what the Russians call it... Maybe "Svezda?"  system deployed around Moscow (That is I think Golash uses nuke warheads.

-Sikboy

[Eagler]

Originally posted by funkedup


NO.  If we recieve warning that a rogue nation is going to launch 20 nuclear ICBMs at major cities in the U.S., we will turn that nation into a smoking glass parking lot well before they launch anything at us.

this is true

that is why there would be 20 suitcases/packpacks/U-haul trucks/vending machines/etc in twenty different cities instead

[midnight Target]

We cannot allow a vending machine gap!

[Eagler]

Originally posted by midnight Target
We cannot allow a vending machine gap!

I stole that idea from the movie SOAF

[StSanta]

Eagler wrote:


to answer the question, no I don't think they could be shot down

I do think if info was given which cities were targeted, the churches in those cities would become very popular, very quickly

They'd be popular even before they were launched - popular on my Target list .

Hullo Eagler, everything ok on yer side of the pond?

[Tracer-15]

Hypothetical situation: where is a "rogue nation " going to get 20 nuclear ICBMS ?? and why would they attack the USA, also the USA can track where the launch came from.

Wanna know where........one word....RUSSIA....anyone with enough $$ can get anything from them

[Sikboy]

Originally posted by Tracer-15


Wanna know where........one word....RUSSIA....anyone with enough $$ can get anything from them

I dissagree. No matter how much money you have you can not buy 20 nuclear tipped ICBMs fromt he russians. Fissile material to build a warhead? Perhaps. But I don't believe that you could even buy a single working Nuclear ICBM from Russia.

-Sikboy