Disaster at Silo 7 (TV 1988)During routine maintenance of a liquid-fuelled ICBM, the fuel tank is penetrated by a falling spanner. The film traces the efforts of the maintenance crew and associated military and ... See full summary » Director:Larry Elikann |
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We all know that the titan II was a VERY powerful missile, and since it was not too accurate (over 1/2 mile CEP, IIRC) it carried a huge warhead of 9 megatons, to compensate for that error. Such a warhead could easily pretty much decimate any large city in the world.
BUT..According to some stories and articles I have read, the US was SERIOUSLY thinking of putting a 35 megaton warhead on the TII. Maybe some here know::
(1--how close in actuality did this come from being deployed??
(2-- Since the missile could only carry so much weight and the W-53 already weighed in excess of 3 tons, (around 3MT/T Y/W) in order to nearly quadruple the yield, without adding too much weight, this would have required a MUCH higher yield/weight ratio than the W-53 or even the B-41. Calculations show that a Y/W ratio of such a warhead would be in excess of 9MT/T, even if the new warhead would be in excess of 4 tons. How was this going to be done?? Was it going to be a multi-stage secondary w/multiple tertiaries, making it a VERY dirty bomb?(it would seem that it would HAVE to be, in order more than to triple the Y/W ratio).
(3-WHY did the leaders even think that such a powerful warhead was needed in the first place?? Unless it was a response to the Tsar Bomba. After all a 9MT blast is MORE than big enough for ANY practical military purpose, no?? (if it was a penetration blast they needed, increasing the accuracy is a MUCH better method, than simply adding firepower--which is EXACTLY what the MIII and Peacekeeper and Trident II has done.) It is likely that one sub-megaton W-87 or W-88 RV would do MORE damage to a target of 1500 feet in diameter,or a hardened target of 200 feet, with a CEP of 300FT, than a W-53 would have done to the same target,with a CEP of 2500FT or more--WITHOUT destroying everything else for 20 miles around in the process.
And don't worry--NONE of this is 'classified", ALL of what I am talking about is available on ANY site or in any book.