JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
orbital nukes
The Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) was a nuclear-weapons delivery system developed in the 1960s by the Soviet Union. One of the first Soviet efforts to use space to deliver weapons, FOBS envisioned launching nuclear warheads into low Earth orbit before bringing them down on their targets.
Like a kinetic bombardment system but with nuclear weapons, FOBS had several attractive qualities: it had no range limit, its flight path would not reveal the target location, and warheads could be directed to North America over the South Pole, evading detection by NORAD's north-facing early warning systems.
The maximum altitude would be around 150km. Energetically, this would require a launch vehicle powerful enough to be capable of putting the weapon 'into orbit'. However the orbit was only a fraction of a full orbit, not sustained, and so there would be much less need to control a precise orbit, or to maintain it long term.
View More On Wikipedia.org
Like a kinetic bombardment system but with nuclear weapons, FOBS had several attractive qualities: it had no range limit, its flight path would not reveal the target location, and warheads could be directed to North America over the South Pole, evading detection by NORAD's north-facing early warning systems.
The maximum altitude would be around 150km. Energetically, this would require a launch vehicle powerful enough to be capable of putting the weapon 'into orbit'. However the orbit was only a fraction of a full orbit, not sustained, and so there would be much less need to control a precise orbit, or to maintain it long term.
View More On Wikipedia.org
-
Time to seriously revisit SDI? Or a mere pipe dream?
^ Earlier in the year, I read this one. It was published by the University of Massachusetts Press as part of a fascinating series on the Cold War that, depending on the volume and author, focuses on the culture, science, politics, military, et al. of the Cold War. The Strategic Defense... -
Standard firearms for community preparation?
OK, this may seem random. This evening I sold a vintage Civil Defense book on the Intratubes. I, normally, wouldn't, but moving around various assets. Whilst at the preparedness bookshelf, I came across an actually pretty informative book I read a few years back: The text covers...- Discussion Thread
- Preparedness & Survival
- CountryGent
- Replies: 32
