Aucbvax.1524
fa.arms-d
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!REM@MIT-MC
Thu Jun 4 23:21:28 1981
SALTed MIRVs
I didn't say (or mean) that MIRVing is more expensive than individual
launch vehicles for each missile. I said that MIRVing is less expensive,
but suffers from increased vulnerability, so no really intelligent
future-sighted military man would have wanted to MIRV just to save
a few bucks. But somebody later pointed out that not only does
MIRVing save a lot more than I guessed (the launch vehicle is just
about the whole cost, the warheads are "free"), but since breaking
up warheads into lots of smaller ones they become more effective
(area destroyed is 2/3 power of megatonnage, because energy goes
into volume of space whereas only a 2-dimensional area is useful),
so MIRVing was a good idea (in a sick way of course), you saturate
an area with small bombs instead of sending one big one, and the
same launch vehicle and same total megatonnage for virtually the
same total cost becomes more effective. -- Thus I correct the
misquote, and also retract my original estimate of the situation.
I'm glad some experts are on this list. I know what I want
(more defense, less chance of anihilation) but need experts to
tell what's going on now and how to get what I want.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <
[email protected]>
of
http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/
This Usenet Oldnews Archive
article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:
1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.
2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:
The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996
Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.
