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A depressed trajectory launch of Trident D5 is going to have a sub ten minute flight time, and realistically neither the Russians or Chinese will know it’s there til it fires.As for orbiting RVs, it is probably hard to make them stealthy while having sufficient fuel for a rapid and accurate deorbit. My understanding is that the Soviet system based on R-36 used essentially an entire third rocket stage for its deorbit - it wasn’t a small or subtle piece of equipment.Also parking nukes in orbit runs the risk of them being detected. The US is known to operate GEO based inspection satellites; it wouldn’t be a huge stretch for there to be LEO satellites as well. For the detection of warheads, they probably just need a gama ray detector as is used in border control scenarios in the states. It could easily be a cubesat. Does the US deploy those? No idea. Would anyone want to find out the hard way?
A depressed trajectory launch of Trident D5 is going to have a sub ten minute flight time, and realistically neither the Russians or Chinese will know it’s there til it fires.
As for orbiting RVs, it is probably hard to make them stealthy while having sufficient fuel for a rapid and accurate deorbit. My understanding is that the Soviet system based on R-36 used essentially an entire third rocket stage for its deorbit - it wasn’t a small or subtle piece of equipment.
Also parking nukes in orbit runs the risk of them being detected. The US is known to operate GEO based inspection satellites; it wouldn’t be a huge stretch for there to be LEO satellites as well. For the detection of warheads, they probably just need a gama ray detector as is used in border control scenarios in the states. It could easily be a cubesat. Does the US deploy those? No idea. Would anyone want to find out the hard way?
