Nowhere was I stating that trading SAMs for SDBs was a good idea.
I was just commenting that it would be easier to track the 250lb bomb, than the full size aircraft it came from.
Old hat, perhaps, but still amazing when you think of it.
Now, how long before they make a LO SDB? 😉

Is it even feasible to have a LO freefall weapon? I know various reduced-RCS missiles have been tested, but is the technology available to keep a LO shape in stable flight through the flight envelope of a gravity bomb?

Matt

Against most asteroids worth firing something at to stop it a big nuke probably wouldn’t be too much use. Blast waves in space are nonexistant… a nuke generates a lot of heat and concentrated energy in space but its blast effect is pathetic. A lot also depends upon the material the rock is made from… a perfect hit with a powerful nuke that burys itself to the core of the object might just turn it to gravel but not have the energy to disipate that gravel. At 60km/s it is mass times velocity that converts the energy… a trillion tons of gravel, a trillion tons of pure iron, a trillion tons of ice cream… they would all explode with very similar force on impact with the earth.

But, and maybe I’m looking at this wrong, wouldn’t a trillion tons of gravel burn up more in the atmosphere then a trillion ton solid rock? Having massively more surface area?
I think any attempt at a nuclear astroid killer would have to incorperate a SERIOUS penetrator cap, make the objects energy work against it. I admit, it would do jack-all against a ferrous asteroid, but it’s effectiveness against a stoney asteroid or a comet would be orders of magnitude better than an airburst nuclear explosion.

My “rod of god” would actually be a sphere.

Tungsten main shell, hollowed inside to provide room for INS/GPS navigation and microwave plasma jet(s) for retro and attitude rockets. Carbon phenolic outer shell, to keep the electronics under temp, until the thickening atmosphere will render the plasma jets useless.

Not large, going more for a low CEP (hence the protected nav. and rockets) and large numbers.

My .03 cents, Canadian 😉

Matt

Let me remind you that Saudi Arabia is a brutal dictatorship with strict one family rule, with no freedom of religion, no freedom for press and practically non-existant human rights for women…. :rolleyes: So, where is your invasion rhetoric now?

Huh? And what does THIS have to to with the price of tea in China??? :confused:

With the odd geography of Ellsworth AFB, we routinely get B-1B’s at 500′ in landing pattern. Sometimes lower if it’s a new pilot 😮

Back when we had the BUFF here, things could really get hairy.

No pics, but how about most of the Blumm und Voss products from WWII??