First Strike - Other Possible First-strike Weapons Systems

Other Possible First-strike Weapons Systems

• Trident II. Trident missiles may carry up to 8 100kt W76 (C4) or 12 (START-limited 8, SORT-limited 5) W76 or 475kt W88 MIRVed warheads (D5), The circular error probable of these weapons is classified, but is believed to be less than 120m (C4) and 100m (D5). The missile attains a temporary low altitude orbit only a few minutes after launch. The Guidance System for the missile is an Inertial Guidance System with an additional Star-Sighting system, which is used to correct small positional errors that have accrued during the flight. GPS has been used on some test flights but is assumed not to be available for a real mission. Trident I-C4 has a range of over 4,000 nm while the Trident II-D5 can surpass 6,000 nm; however, the absolute ranges of these missiles are classified and do not belong in the public domain for reasons of national security.

• SS-18 Satan Mod I/II 25 megaton variant. Although it is widely accepted that USSR never had a first-strike strategy (due to its conventional arms superiority in Europe), some experts believed that the single-warhead 25 megaton version of R36-M (SS-18, CEP 250 m.) was a first-strike weapon, targeted against Minuteman III silos. However, a much more logical explanation comes from retired Soviet military officers who report that the 25 megaton SS-18 was targeted against heavily fortified command and control facilities. The reason for this is that a single 25 megaton warhead could only take out one hardened missile silo if the silos are sufficiently separated—probably by only 2–4 km, depending on the amount of hardening. This is due to the inverse square law, which predicts that the amount of energy dispersed from a single point release of energy (such as a thermonuclear blast) dissipates by the inverse of the square of distance from the single point of release. The result is that the power of a nuclear explosion to rupture hardened structures is greatly decreased by the distance from the impact point of the nuclear weapon. So a near-direct hit is generally necessary, as only diminishing returns are gained by increasing bomb power. The only purpose for gigantic nuclear weapons, like the SS-18 25 megaton variant, is to take out extremely hardened targets, like command and control facilities, such as NORAD, located at Cheyenne Mountain; Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), located at Mount Weather; or Site R, located at Raven Rock. (It should be noted that the amount of energy needed to rupture missile silos is orders of magnitude greater than the amount necessary to destroy cities, making the SS-18 25 megaton variant effective for the destruction of large urban centers, as well.) This could be a useful weapon for a decapitation strike—however, a decapitation strike is a very risky move, and both the U.S. and Russia have extensive countermeasures against such methods.