Nuclear weapons delivery
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Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. Several methods have been developed to carry out this task.
Strategic nuclear weapons are used primarily as part of a doctrine of
Nuclear triad
A nuclear triad refers to a
Main delivery mechanisms
Gravity bomb
Historically the first method of nuclear weapons delivery, and the method used in
Gravity bombs are designed to be dropped from planes, which requires that the weapon be able to withstand vibrations and changes in air temperature and pressure during the course of a flight. Early weapons often had a removable core for safety, known as
Various air-dropping techniques exist, including
The earliest gravity nuclear bombs (
.Cruise missile
A
The
Cruise missiles may also be launched from mobile launchers on the ground, and from naval ships.
There is no letter change in the US arsenal to distinguish the warheads of cruise missiles from those for ballistic missiles.
Cruise missiles, even with their lower payload, speed, and thus readiness, have a number of advantages over ballistic missiles for the purposes of delivering nuclear strikes:
- Launch of a cruise missile is difficult to detect early from satellites and other long-range means, contributing to a surprise factor of attack.
- That, coupled with the ability to actively maneuver in flight, allows for penetration of strategic anti-missile systems aimed at intercepting ballistic missiles, which typically fly on a ballistic arc without complex maneuvers.
However, cruise missiles are vulnerable to typical
Prior to the development of nuclear-armed
Air- or Ground-launched nuclear-armed cruise missiles (sometimes even nuclear-powered) were considered by both sides early in the Cold War, but both concluded that it was impractical with the technology of the time. Nuclear-powered aircraft were considered due to the nascent aeronautical and rocketry technology of the time, especially when considering the temperamental and inefficient nature of early jet engines, which limited the range and use cases of strategic bombers and cruise missiles. Later on in the Cold War both disciplines had advanced far enough that it was feasible to create both reliable long-ranged cruise missiles and the strategic bombers able to launch them. Another arms-race began which produced contemporary post-Cold War cruise missiles and launch systems; VLS technology also allowed for surface ships to be armed with nuclear-armed cruise missiles while concealing their true payload. In 2018, the first operational nuclear-powered strategic cruise missile, the SSC-X-9 "Skyfall" (9М730 Буревестник) was revealed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is under development and is slated to enter service sometime in the 2020s.
Ballistic missile
Placement of nuclear missiles on the
An ICBM is more than 20 times as fast as a
Early ballistic missiles carried a single
Missile warheads in the
While the first modern ballistic missile designed is the basis of contemporary rocket- and missilery, it never carried a nuclear warhead. The first ICBM ever designed was the Soviet R-7.
The first SLBM-carrying submarine was also Soviet; the prototype Modified Zulu-class and the mass-produced Golf-class ballistic missile submarines carried their SLBMs in their sails, but these pioneering designs had to surface to launch their ballistic missiles. The Americans responded with the first "modern design" of ballistic missile subs; the George Washington-class, which launched the Polaris SLBM. The subsequent arms-race culminated in some of the largest submarines ever designed; the Trident-armed 170 meter long Ohio-class submarine armed with 24 x 8 MIRV Trident missiles, and the battlecruiser-sized 48,000 tonne Project 941 Акула, the Typhoon-class submarine, armed with 20 R-39s with 10 MIRVs each. After the Cold War, SSBN and subsequently SLBM development have slowed, but nascent nuclear powers are building novel classes of SSB(N)s, while the established powers, all members of the United Nations Security Council, are plotting the next-generation of nuclear-powered nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines.
Other delivery systems
Other delivery methods included nuclear artillery shells, mines such as the Medium Atomic Demolition Munition and the novel Blue Peacock, nuclear depth bombs, and nuclear torpedoes. An 'Atomic Bazooka' was also fielded, designed to be used against large formations of tanks.
In the 1950s the US developed small nuclear warheads for air defense use, such as the
Small, two-man portable tactical weapons (erroneously referred to as
Costs
According to an audit by the
Technology spin-offs
Strictly speaking however not all this 57 percent was spent solely on "weapons programs" delivery systems.
Launch vehicles
For example, two such
Weather satellites
The first true
Lubricants
These stainless steel fuel tanks were so thin that, when empty, they had to be kept inflated with nitrogen gas to prevent their collapse.Thermal isolation
In 1953, Dr. S. Donald Stookey of the Corning Research and Development Division invented Pyroceram, a white glass-ceramic material capable of withstanding a thermal shock (sudden temperature change) of up to 450 °C (840 °F). It evolved from materials originally developed for a US ballistic missile program, and Stookey's research involved heat-resistant material for nose cones.[13]
Satellite assisted positioning
Precise navigation would enable United States
Global positioning system
During a Labor Day weekend in 1973, a meeting of about twelve military officers at the Pentagon discussed the creation of a Defense Navigation Satellite System (DNSS). It was at this meeting that "the real synthesis that became GPS was created." Later that year, the DNSS program was named Navstar, or Navigation System Using Timing and Ranging.[16]
During the development of the submarine-launched Polaris missile, a requirement to accurately know the submarine's location was needed to ensure a high circular error probable warhead target accuracy. This led the US to develop the Transit system.[17] In 1959, ARPA (renamed DARPA in 1972) also played a role in Transit.[18][19][20]
The first satellite navigation system,
While there were wide needs for accurate navigation in military and civilian sectors, almost none of those was seen as justification for the billions of dollars it would cost in research, development, deployment, and operation for a constellation of navigation satellites. During the
Precise navigation would enable United States
In 1960, the Air Force proposed a radio-navigation system called MOSAIC (MObile System for Accurate ICBM Control) that was essentially a 3-D LORAN. A follow-on study, Project 57, was worked in 1963 and it was "in this study that the GPS concept was born". That same year, the concept was pursued as Project 621B, which had "many of the attributes that you now see in GPS"[25] and promised increased accuracy for Air Force bombers as well as ICBMs. Updates from the Navy Transit system were too slow for the high speeds of Air Force operation. The Navy Research Laboratory continued advancements with their Timation (Time Navigation) satellites, first launched in 1967, and with the third one in 1974 carrying the first atomic clock into orbit.[26]
Another important predecessor to GPS came from a different branch of the United States military. In 1964, the United States Army orbited its first Sequential Collation of Range (SECOR) satellite used for geodetic surveying. The SECOR system included three ground-based transmitters from known locations that would send signals to the satellite transponder in orbit. A fourth ground-based station, at an undetermined position, could then use those signals to fix its location precisely. The last SECOR satellite was launched in 1969.[27] Decades later, during the early years of GPS, civilian surveying became one of the first fields to make use of the new technology, because surveyors could reap benefits of signals from the less-than-complete GPS constellation years before it was declared operational. GPS can be thought of as an evolution of the SECOR system where the ground-based transmitters have been migrated into orbit.[citation needed]
See also
- History of nuclear weapons
- List of nuclear weapons
- Mutual assured destruction doctrine
- National missile defenseof the United States
- Nuclear explosion
- Nuclear strategy
- Nuclear weapon design
- Nuclear terrorism
Notes
- ^ John Barry (12 December 2009). "Do We Still Need a Nuclear 'Triad'?". Newsweek. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
- ^ Office for the Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters. "Nuclear Stockpile". US Department of Defense. Archived from the original on 10 May 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
- ^ "Toning Up the Nuclear Triad". Time. 23 September 1985. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
- ^ Nav Air, Navy.
- ^ Honkova, Jana (13 April 2013). "Current Developments in Russia's Ballistic Missile Defense" (PDF). George C. Marshall Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 April 2014.
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved 29 February 2024.
- ^ Estimated Minimum Incurred Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Programs, 1940–1996, Brookings Institution, archived from the original on 21 November 2008.
- ^ "Titan", Military launch program, FAS,
The Titan II ICBM was converted into the Titan/Gemini space launch vehicle (SLV) by man-rating critical systems. It served as a significant stepping stone in the evolution of the US human spaceflight program using expendable launch vehicles, culminating in the Apollo program. Twelve successful Gemini launches occurred between April 1964 and November 1966.
- ^ "Titan History", Space flight now.
- ^ Darling, David, "Tiros", Encyclopedia.
- ^ "Our History". WD-40. Archived from the original on 23 June 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- ^ Martin, Douglas. "John S. Barry, Main Force Behind WD-40, Dies at 84". The New York Times, 22 July 2009.
- ^ "Annual Report: 10-K" (Securities and Exchange Commission filing). WKI. 13 April 2001. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2007.
- ^ a b "Why Did the Department of Defense Develop GPS?". Trimble Navigation. Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
- ^ Caston, Lauren; et al. "The Future of the U.S. Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Force" (PDF). The RAND corporation.
- ^ "MX Deployment Reconsidered", Air Chronicles, Air force, May–June 1981, retrieved 7 June 2013.
- ^ Johnson, Steven (2010), Where good ideas come from, the natural history of innovation, New York: Riverhead Books
- ^ Worth, Helen E; Warren, Mame (2009). Transit to Tomorrow. Fifty Years of Space Research (PDF). The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 September 2019.
- ^ Alexandrow, Catherine (April 2008). "The Story of GPS". Darpa. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011.
- ^ "50 Years of Bridging the Gap", History, DARPA, April 2008
- ^ "Counterforce issues for the US strategic nuclear forces" (PDF). CBO. 1978.
- ^ Forden, Geoffrey. "Strategic uses for China's Bei Dou satellite system" (PDF). MIT.
- ^ Scott, Logan. "Circular Error Probable (CEP) mathematics". Earth link. Archived from the original on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
- ^ Proc, Jerry. "Omega". CA: Jerry Proc. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
- ^ "Charting a Course Toward Global Navigation". The Aerospace Corporation. Summer 2002. Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
- ^ "GPS Timeline". A Guide to the Global Positioning System (GPS). Radio Shack. Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
- ^ Wade, Mark. "SECOR Chronology". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Astronautix. Archived from the original on 16 January 2010. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
References
External links
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