In the first of maybe a multi-part series, I’ll endeavor to explore the complex issues behind Nuclear Warfare, exploring why it is an option, the delivery methods, and how we could stop it. All of these blog posts will contain similar advanced acronyms, so I’ll try to quickly define them.
For the purposes of this blog post series, consider that all these missiles are nuclear tipped. WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction, this is a category that includes chemical/biological weapons, along with nuclear. ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (Minimum Effective Range of 5,500 km to wherever in the world) Theater Ballistic Missile: This later replaced IRBMs, MRBMs, and SRBMs for the US and nations with similar missile capabilities, though the DPRK still continues to develop MRBMs. (Effective Range of 300km-3,500km) IRBM: Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (Effective Range of 3,000-5,500 km) A Subspecies of the IRBM is the LRBM (Long Range Ballistic Missile) which is used to describe missiles between IRBMs and ICBMs. MRBM: Medium Range Ballistic Missile (Effective Range of Less than 3,500km) SRBM: Short Range Ballistic Missile (Effective Range of Less than 1,000 km) SLBM: Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (Any Ballistic Missile, usually an ICBM capable of being launched from a submarine) BMD: Ballistic Missile Defense. ABM: Anti Ballistic Missile. MDA: Missile Defense Agency, in charge of the USA’s missile defense. DEW: Directed Energy Weapon, i.e. a laser. Interceptor: A missile that can shoot down another missile. SDI: Strategic Defense Initiative: A now defunct 1980s program that aimed to have a system of DEW equipped satellite to shoot down ICBMs. Burn Stage: When a missile is first launched and the motor is burning. Terminal Stage: When the missile’s warhead is about to hit the target. Countermeasure: A highly radar reflective piece that helps “hide” the true warhead. Patriot Missile: A battle tested missile defense system that can shoot down short-ranged missiles in their terminal stage, more specifically SCUDs (Russian Made short ranged non-nuclear missiles) THAAD: Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, similar to the Patriot system. GMD: Ground-Based Midcourse Defense: A Continental US-Based system designed to shoot down ICBMs in their burn stage, 30 deployed in Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base. Aegis BMD (ABMD): Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, primarily deployed on US Cruisers and Destroyers have limited satellite takedown capability and the ability to shoot down MRBMs while in flight. Aegis Ashore is the land based variant of this system. MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction, or the idea if one side instigates a nuclear exchange, both sides will be able to destroy each other’s ability to wage war, therefore stopping any conflict at all. MIRV: Multi Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle: A ballistic missile payload containing several warheads that can hit multiple targets, reentering seperatly. Now, before I continue next week on this multipart series, I’d like to dispel some myths on the destructive capabilities of a nuclear exchange to destroy the entire world. Quite simply that is an exaggeration. You might have heard before that we have the ability to destroy the entire world many times over but this is no longer true. Even though the USSR and the US both were able to develop multi-megaton warheads (for comparison, the Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons) there are no longer being produced and are being scrapped. Why? This is because these warhead are often heavy, hard to get on target, and in the age of precision computer hardware, the US has the capability to drop a nuclear warhead anywhere in the world within 20 minutes within 200 meters of the designated target. Therefore, precision has won over sheer explosive power. In fact, even though the US had developed 15 megaton nuclear warheads, the current W87 Thermonuclear warheads deployed on Minuteman III ICBMs only have a yield of 300 kilotons (475 unconfirmed, it’s all classified). Furthermore the US and Russia have dismantled over 50,000 nuclear weapons since the peak of nuclear weapons, which mean there are simply not enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire world. Finally, for comparison the Chisholm Wildfire in Canada released 18 megatons of energy with little climate change, so nuclear weapons most likely wouldn’t either. For more in-depth reading, I suggest you read the highest rated answer here: https://www.quora.com/How-destructive-is-the-Worlds-nuclear-arsenal. (Over 33 reliable sources cited! Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-Based_Midcourse_Defense https://mda.mil/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_ballistic_missile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercontinental_ballistic_missile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_Ballistic_Missile_Defense_System
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AuthorThis is a school project for English 1A for high school. Archives
February 2017
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