XBradTC

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XBradTC

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MIRV’d

When I saw Dave Cenciotti’s post on this clip of Russian ICBM reentry vehicles impacting the Kura Range, I was planning on sharing a wealth of information on the engineering of a warhead bus in deploying warheads to independent targets, as well as decoys and other penetration aids. But life got in the way, so…

When I saw Dave Cenciotti’s post on this clip of Russian ICBM reentry vehicles impacting the Kura Range, I was planning on sharing a wealth of information on the engineering of a warhead bus in deploying warheads to independent targets, as well as decoys and other penetration aids.

But life got in the way, so all you get is the clip, and just a bit of commentary.

ICBM warheads reach a top velocity of around Mach 25, but they also decelerate as they return from space. The earliest US reentry vehicle, the Mk4, used a blunt body for best heat disipation and to fit the relatively large physics package. That blunt shape meant the Mk4 was actually subsonic by the time it reached the surface.

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  1. TBG

    Looks like the old Missile Command game!

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  2. .5mt

    So that’s what the end of the world will look like.

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  3. NaCly Dog

    Well, there are not enough weapons left for that. It’s a big planet. Humanity may get it’s hair mussed. No more that 2 billion, tops.

    My reaction would be: BMOW, sound GQ. Ass to the blast and Flank 3. Set Circle William throughout the ship. Activate the countermeasure washdown system. Uh, Captain, we have a problem. Would you go to CIC?

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  4. ultimaratioregis

    +1 for the Strangelove reference. But I had the same thought as .5mt. All those years of the Soviet missile, threat, it would be that vision you would see in the last moments of your life.

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  5. NaCly Dog

    URR, nothing like growing up or working at prime strategic targets during the Cold Wars to become fatalistic. Good times.

    Later, when I had to professionally assess the blast and other effects of nuclear weapons, my views shifted somewhat. It makes for great disutopian SF stories, and destruction of the main target countries, but not the immediate end of civilization.

    Real damage to humanity requires a infectious but low fatality rate cold virus that becomes pervasive, followed by a body-catalyzed mutation (like a pro-drug to drug) to a highly virulent form. That can wipe out a very large percentage of the population.

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  6. Quartermaster

    Bubonic Plague did not become the pestilential killer of legend until it morphed into a pneumonic form that would spread through human contact.

    I’m under no illusion, however, that nukes on our major population center would be anything less than catastrophic. But, I understand what you mean by growing up near major nuke targets. My father was in the Air Farce and the only place I lived when I was growing up that was not a nuke target was Albany, Oregon.

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  7. ultimaratioregis

    Or zombies. Don’t forget zombies.

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  8. hayabusa69

    I grew up in Southern California during the final decades of the Cold War, and remember on multiple occasions watching the smoke trails of Minuteman ICBMs ascending from Vandenburg AFB during test launches. I remember thinking it was kind of chilling, seeing as how this might be what the beginning of WWIII would look like.

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen actual videos of re-entering warheads, though. This is even creepier. I’m with .5mt on this.

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