rstaff3, Richie May, scottw76051, Thoth, God of Knowledge, and 23 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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James Vaughan
x-ray delta one
Member since 2009
- Taken on September 20, 2010
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x-ray delta one 33 months ago | reply
... time exposure showing re-entry paths of 8 MIRV missle warheads from a single 'Peacekeeper' missile. MIRV stands for( Multiple Independent targetable Re-entry Vehicle).
I don't know where they lost the 'T' in the acronym.
Each of these warheads could have the explosive force of up to 300 Kilotons- or 14 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Fortunately for the test they were dummies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRV
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacekeeper_missile
... oh boy, here's the AV Kid with an official Air Force film-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPhjMHBBdbM
zippythesimshead 33 months ago | reply
holy crap
x-ray delta one 33 months ago | reply
... holy crap is right. The effects of eight detonations are much higher than one big bomb of the equal megatonage.
Having multiple warheads gives defensive systems more threats to track and neutralize. Since each re-entry vehicle can follow a pre-programmed independent ballistic path- one missile can take out multiple targets. The current Minuteman III force has only 3 MIRVs per missile. The Peacekeeper, which was never actually deployed, could have carried up to ten. There were rumors that the USSR had designs for missile that could have carried 30 MIRVs!
This was all part of the chess game of targeting the other sides missile silos. In theory a 'first strike' could wipe out the opponents missile force. Obviously both sides adopted a 'launch on warning' protocol. As soon as the early warning system of satellites and radar spotted the incoming missile barrage a massive retaliation would be launched. It was also known as the 'use them or lose them' strategy.
[ Both sides had (have) a 'Nuclear Triad' of silo based missiles, bombers and ballistic missile submarines. This ensures that enough of a superpower's nuclear forces will survive to launch a devastating counterattack. This maintained the wobbly balance of Assured Mutual Destruction' ]
Flight time to target for an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile is between 15 and 20 minutes. Missiles launched from enemy submarines lurking off the coast have flight times of only 5 minutes to some of their primary targets. It is a very good thing that the 'high readiness' of the Cold War has been greatly lowered.
scottw76051 33 months ago | reply
Heeeeere's MIRRRRRRV....
docarelle 33 months ago | reply
I spent much of the 80's worried that Ronald Reagan was going to talk us into a nuclear bomb end of the world confrontation. I was actually fairly convinced it was going to happen several times.
JARM13 33 months ago | reply
Oddly enough , I believe we'll have ten minutes to say awwwww sh****t and we get clobbered by a big rock from outer space .
blackcat77 33 months ago | reply
That's beautiful and horrible at the same time.
docarelle -- I'm old enough to remember the 50s, and it was much worse than the Reagan era. Look at movies like Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe or that schlep classic, This is Not a Test. That was the way people actually thought -- nuclear war wasn't a matter of "if," but of "when."
x-ray delta one 33 months ago | reply
... wow, I didn't know anyone else had ever seen 'This Is Not a Test'!!
docarelle 33 months ago | reply
I also was around in the 50s and spent my elementary school years running to the school basement under the cafeteria tables for bomb drills. However, it wasn't as real to me when I was little. As I grew up I thought everyone had finally come to their senses, but I was honestly worried for a while there in the middle of the 80s that someone was going to push and posture us right into a nuclear confrontation.
x-ray delta one 33 months ago | reply
... 'docarelle' here's the grade school basement i would have gone thru Doomsday in-
atomic-annhilation.blogspot.com/2009/08/deep-beneath-silv...
docarelle 33 months ago | reply
What is utterly bizarre is that the photo you referenced to looks EXACTLY like the basement cafeteria of LaVale Elementary School in Maryland in 1960 where I did my bomb drills - that is utterly freaky! =8-o
JARM13 33 months ago | reply
And much like the cafeteria at my grade school near Warren , Ohio of it was less then 50 miles away .
nano_burger 32 months ago | reply
Only 8? The MX should have 10....the X in MX is the Roman numeral 10.
Mick O'Reilly 23 months ago | reply
very cool shot...