LGM-35A Sentinel - Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program

sferrin said:
I would hope it would be a damn sight better. It's been over 40 years after all.
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40m is pretty much the ragged edge of what you can do without control surfaces. Unevening burning, meteorological conditions, etc introduces a certain amount of randomness. Though presumably a modern INS is more compact and less expensive.
 
Josh_TN said:
40m is pretty much the ragged edge of what you can do without control surfaces. Unevening burning, meteorological conditions, etc introduces a certain amount of randomness. Though presumably a modern INS is more compact and less expensive.
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Missile units get weather data over their assigned targets as part of the regular news feeds.
 
In any case, any purely ballistic RV dropped outside the atmosphere is going to have precision limitations that no amount of technology on the warhead bus will solve.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Yes, the UK gave up on silo ICBMs and bombers, because they didn't have enough real estate to protect the silos and airfields. Country too small physically.
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That's incorrect, in both cases money was the issue.

Blue Streak and its associated silos hewn into granite was simply unaffordable. It was estimated to need £600 million in 1960 to deploy, or £12 billion today.

Aircraft-delivered WE177 was withdrawn in 1998 because the RAF had a choice between continuing to fund Eurofighter or its nuclear capability.
 
sferrin said:
Sounds like they need a different system if they want it better then.
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They need manoeuvrable RVs with independent guidance if they want it better aka PGRVs, which was once a thing being studied 40 years ago before they fell asleep at the wheel.

kqcke for you said:
But a modern gyro could be smaller, cheaper and lighter which all are benefits we want.
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Especially if you can put it on RVs with control surfaces.
 
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Kiltonge said:
That's incorrect, in both cases money was the issue.

Blue Streak and its associated silos hewn into granite was simply unaffordable. It was estimated to need £600 million in 1960 to deploy, or £12 billion today.

Aircraft-delivered WE177 was withdrawn in 1998 because the RAF had a choice between continuing to fund Eurofighter or its nuclear capability.
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And there was only one place in the island with granite available to put silos, which put all the eggs into one basket.
 
 
Josh_TN said:
40m is pretty much the ragged edge of what you can do without control surfaces. Unevening burning, meteorological conditions, etc introduces a certain amount of randomness. Though presumably a modern INS is more compact and less expensive.
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You really don't need any more accuracy for 95% of the targets, especially if you are double tapping. The silos should be within the nuclear crater at those accuracies and yields.
 
Desertfox said:
You really don't need any more accuracy for 95% of the targets, especially if you are double tapping. The silos should be within the nuclear crater at those accuracies and yields.
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For a 475kT warhead, the inside crater radius is actually 151m according to:
nuclearsecrecy.com

NUKEMAP by Alex Wellerstein

NUKEMAP is a website for visualizing the effects of nuclear detonations.
nuclearsecrecy.com nuclearsecrecy.com
 
I think the only sites that could survive a W88 involve granite mountains, and even then “survive” probably is not the same as be functional. Assuming survival was even on the table. Half a megaton at the CEP range of a football field (US or EU for this purpose is roughly equivalent) is not a very survivable event.
 
Desertfox said:
You really don't need any more accuracy for 95% of the targets, especially if you are double tapping. The silos should be within the nuclear crater at those accuracies and yields.
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Crud, 40m is likely within the impact crater, nevermind the blast crater!
 

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