Idea to fit missile interceptors with nuclear weapons shelved

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2648589,00.html

WASHINGTON--A U.S. Army command last month issued a draft proposal asking for a study of how nuclear weapons might be used on national missile defense interceptors, but a spokesman said the idea will go no further.

"The draft is being revised," said John Cummings, spokesman for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala. "It was a mistake."

Congress has outlawed research on and development of nuclear-armed missile interceptors since 2003.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, while a staunch supporter of the national missile defense system, sponsored the language to prohibit nuclear weaponry on its interceptors. This year, the prohibition appeared in the appropriations act for the Department of Defense, which Stevens oversaw as chairman of both the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Defense subcommittee.

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[bemildred]

1. Morons. nt

[jukes]

2. it's illegal

(& really stupid) they know, don't care, gonna do it anyhow.

this admin's got more leax than a prom-night condom.

[mdhunter]

3. Good Christ Almighty

The military wanted to put what on a launch vehicle that has track record about as good as most grade school lunches!?

Morons.

[Bono71]

5. Took the words right out of my keyboard. n/t

[underpants]

11. Well it wouldn't have to be that accurate then would it?

I'm just saying

:scared:

[leesa]

4. "It was a mistake". You mean a clerical error?

They haven't had a single successful test and they want to put nuclear weapons on them??

[Hobarticus]

6. Agreed. Clerical error, my foot....

The damn things can't score a hit without a beacon attached to the target, so if they fit a nuke to the interceptor, the margin of error dramatically increases.

Simple, eh?

Don't have to be a rocket scientist to see through their explanation, or to realize how much of a bad idea this is.

[oneighty]

7. The Nike Zeus

comes to mind.

180

[NNN0LHI]

9. You beat me to it. Damn n/t

[oneighty]

10. Ah

How you know those things?

180

[NNN0LHI]

8. This was done before in the 1950's. I grew up a few miles from a Nike base

http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/N-view.html

The Nike Missile System

A Concise Historical Overview

The Nike Mission

During the first decade of the Cold War, the Soviet Union began to develop a series of long-range bomber aircraft, capable of reaching targets within the continental United States. The potential threat posed by such aircraft became much more serious when, in 1949, the Russians exploded their first atomic bomb.

The perception that the Soviet Union might be capable of constructing a sizable fleet of long-range, nuclear-armed bomber aircraft capable of reaching the continental United States provided motivation to rapidly develop and deploy the Nike system to defend major U.S. population centers and other vital targets. The outbreak of hostilities in Korea, provided a further impetus to this deployment. snip

Unlike the Ajax, the Hercules missile was designed from the outset to carry a nuclear warhead. Designated "W-31" the Hercules nuclear warhead was available in three different yields: low yield (3-Kilotons); medium yield (20-Kilotons) and high yield (30-Kilotons.). A Kiloton (Kt.) represents the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT. For purposes of comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, near the end of the Second World War had a yield of approximately 15 Kilotons.

Armed with its nuclear warhead a single Nike Hercules missile was capable of destroying a closely spaced formation of several attacking aircraft. However, defending against mass formations of aircraft was not the only reason for deploying atomic warheads on the Hercules missiles. Instead, the atomic capability provided an enhanced capacity for destroying or disabling the nuclear weapons carried aboard an aircraft, helping to ensure that there would be no nuclear detonation of these devices.

Deployment of the first nuclear-armed Nike Hercules missiles was made on an emergency basis within the continental United States. Because sufficient quantities of the W-31 warhead were not available in early 1958, some of these missiles were initially equipped with an already available, although somewhat heavier, nuclear warhead designated "W-7".

The Hercules missile could also be equipped with a powerful, high-explosive, fragmentation-type warhead designated "T-45". This warhead provided a useful alternative to the atomic W-31 warhead. For example, a conventional Hercules missile could have been used to engage a single U-2 type Soviet reconnaissance aircraft, a circumstance when the nuclear capability would have been excessive. Very limited numbers of conventional Nike Hercules missiles were deployed at Nike missile sites within the continental United States. The vast majority of these missiles were, however, nuclear-tipped.

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Here is the one I used to live near:

http://ed-thelen.org/loc-i.html#C-50

Homewood

C - W of Il. 1, H of 187th St. ((P)IL ArNG recruiting
<{Burgess, P} (3/2002) ... . The ING abandoned the site several years ago and it has only just been demolished and converted into a public park. I am trying to get the local park district to erect a plaque remembering the site, but so far no go. I am a US navy vet and thought that the efforts of the Army here should at least warrant a plaque. We'll see how it goes. >
L - Il 1, S of 187th St ((P)Mercy Health Care/USAR Center)