There are reasons why ballistic missiles don't spin. Most are related to the thin-wall structure that they use, and others are related to the fuel not linking being spun at the RPMs needed to have any effect. As for mirroring, see my post here: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1447506&cid=30149430
I was told a story by a guy who worked in the ABM field in the 80's.
They wanted to see if mirroring an ICBM would work against lasers, and they had a whole lot of money they needed to spend, so they bought a top of the line astronomical mirror (the kind that astronomers would kill their grandmother for), and pointed a big laser at it. The mirror reflected something like 99.99% of the light that hit it. The.01% though heated the mirror up so that a few microseconds later, the reflectivity was down to 99.9%, a microsecond later it was down to 98%, and less than 20 microseconds later it was close to 80%. Then the mirror exploded from the thermal stresses.
1. The Patriot version used in the Gulf War (round 1) was not designed to be used against Tactical Ballistic Missiles (like SCUDs), but against opposition aircraft. A fighter isn't going to be flying as fast, and thus the error is going to be much smaller, which means the missile would probably still find the plane.
2. The Patriot has a quite good record against SCUDs (after the software upgrades). Much better than the Soviet SA-2s did against B-52 raids in Vietnam.
3. Systems don't always work right the first time, and if you do a full on test to start with, and something goes wrong, it's a lot harder to find where the error is than if you test one part at a time.
1. Sea Lion can never work. The assests needed to launch it are on the order of those needed for Olympic, which only the US after 4 years of war was able to collect in one place for an invasion.
2. IF the UK falls (Halifax and Butler are the best way for this to happen). All of the bomber projects prior to the B-36 are shelved, and we go for mass production of B-36s.
Sometime around '47, the Nazi Napkin-waffe is still unable to get jets flying fast enough due to lacking the raw materials, or the industrial integration, and the US launches an attack using 2000+ B-36s (some with atomic payloads, others with conventional, others with Electronic and Optical recon loadouts, some Tankers, and some as GB-36s - the Goblin carriers), that destroys Germany in one swift stroke.
2. Reagan's plan was never finished in the first place. This one's pretty simple. Do we have a functioning missile defense system, capable of protecting us from ICBMs? Answer: no.
Wrong answer. We do, look up Ft. Greely Alaska. Also look up the Safeguard, Nike-X, Nike-Zeus, Sprint, and the biggest traitor in American history - Robert Strange MacNamara (my he rot in hell).
So for example, with 100 gallons of milk, and 200 people -- where each person 'requires' exactly one gallon of milk a day -- would it be better to give 100 people a gallon, and let the others starve? Or find a way to make a half-gallon work for everyone?
If you are China, you take the milk, water it down so you have 400 gallons, add Melamine to make the protein count look good, and sell half to the rest of the world.
Let's kill all space flight then. If you can get up there, and can get in the way of a satellite then you can kill it. The US has had four ASAT programs that I can remember off of the top of my head:
Anyone who writes that the Global Hawk is the size of a fighter has never seen one in person. The damn thing is HUGE. The wingspan is even greater than that of a U-2. It's an awesome plane with some serious potential.
The Most you can get out of me (as a professional) is reproduction rights (I get to keep all commercial rights [although when I do not-for-profit jobs {like the local junior string orchestra} I put in a clause saying that I can't sell them to a third party without written consent]). Then again I'm a rather young company so I have to do what I can to get my name out there, and thus I tend to give more out for less. It seems to me that a lot of the people on/. tend not to make a living on their IP, and thus they don't have the healthy respect for the IP of others that I think they should have.
I will say that selling reproduction rights to sittings is my most profitable item I sell (I charge roughly 8-12USD per photo, and they cost me about.50USD to make), as well as my second most common (after wallets). If I was your photographer, We'd have to work something out (and by that I mean that I wouldn't get everything I wanted and neither would you), and there would be a signed contract involved.
Slashdot Mirror
Except there are technical reasons why spinning a ballistic missile is a Bad Idea.
There are reasons why ballistic missiles don't spin. Most are related to the thin-wall structure that they use, and others are related to the fuel not linking being spun at the RPMs needed to have any effect. As for mirroring, see my post here: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1447506&cid=30149430
I was told a story by a guy who worked in the ABM field in the 80's.
They wanted to see if mirroring an ICBM would work against lasers, and they had a whole lot of money they needed to spend, so they bought a top of the line astronomical mirror (the kind that astronomers would kill their grandmother for), and pointed a big laser at it. The mirror reflected something like 99.99% of the light that hit it. The .01% though heated the mirror up so that a few microseconds later, the reflectivity was down to 99.9%, a microsecond later it was down to 98%, and less than 20 microseconds later it was close to 80%. Then the mirror exploded from the thermal stresses.
Mirroring doesn't work with weapons grade lasers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-104_Patriot#Success_rate_vs._accuracy
Postol can be ignored, because he is a known liar. He's a very good liar, but a liar non the less.
As for ABM, we were doing skin-skin kills of ICBMs in the 60s with NIKE systems.
1. The Patriot version used in the Gulf War (round 1) was not designed to be used against Tactical Ballistic Missiles (like SCUDs), but against opposition aircraft. A fighter isn't going to be flying as fast, and thus the error is going to be much smaller, which means the missile would probably still find the plane.
2. The Patriot has a quite good record against SCUDs (after the software upgrades). Much better than the Soviet SA-2s did against B-52 raids in Vietnam.
3. Systems don't always work right the first time, and if you do a full on test to start with, and something goes wrong, it's a lot harder to find where the error is than if you test one part at a time.
1. Sea Lion can never work. The assests needed to launch it are on the order of those needed for Olympic, which only the US after 4 years of war was able to collect in one place for an invasion.
2. IF the UK falls (Halifax and Butler are the best way for this to happen). All of the bomber projects prior to the B-36 are shelved, and we go for mass production of B-36s.
Sometime around '47, the Nazi Napkin-waffe is still unable to get jets flying fast enough due to lacking the raw materials, or the industrial integration, and the US launches an attack using 2000+ B-36s (some with atomic payloads, others with conventional, others with Electronic and Optical recon loadouts, some Tankers, and some as GB-36s - the Goblin carriers), that destroys Germany in one swift stroke.
Or one could just read Stuart Slade's The Big One http://www.amazon.com/Big-One-Stuart-Slade/dp/1430304952
I have my copy signed.
2. Reagan's plan was never finished in the first place. This one's pretty simple. Do we have a functioning missile defense system, capable of protecting us from ICBMs? Answer: no.
Wrong answer. We do, look up Ft. Greely Alaska. Also look up the Safeguard, Nike-X, Nike-Zeus, Sprint, and the biggest traitor in American history - Robert Strange MacNamara (my he rot in hell).
Posting to remove accidental mod to Parent.
So for example, with 100 gallons of milk, and 200 people -- where each person 'requires' exactly one gallon of milk a day -- would it be better to give 100 people a gallon, and let the others starve? Or find a way to make a half-gallon work for everyone?
If you are China, you take the milk, water it down so you have 400 gallons, add Melamine to make the protein count look good, and sell half to the rest of the world.
This is why ASAT is so easy. You can do it, without meaning to!
Let's kill all space flight then. If you can get up there, and can get in the way of a satellite then you can kill it. The US has had four ASAT programs that I can remember off of the top of my head:
Modified NIKE-Hercules (Long range SAM/ABM)
Modified THOR (ICBM)
ASM-135 (F-15 Launched Missile)
RIM-161 "SM-3" (AEGIS Ship Launched Theater Anti-Ballistic Missile)
Note the common thread in these - most take a proven technology and then slightly tweak it to turn it into an ASAT weapon.
Anyone who writes that the Global Hawk is the size of a fighter has never seen one in person. The damn thing is HUGE. The wingspan is even greater than that of a U-2. It's an awesome plane with some serious potential.
The Most you can get out of me (as a professional) is reproduction rights (I get to keep all commercial rights [although when I do not-for-profit jobs {like the local junior string orchestra} I put in a clause saying that I can't sell them to a third party without written consent]). Then again I'm a rather young company so I have to do what I can to get my name out there, and thus I tend to give more out for less. It seems to me that a lot of the people on /. tend not to make a living on their IP, and thus they don't have the healthy respect for the IP of others that I think they should have.
.50USD to make), as well as my second most common (after wallets). If I was your photographer, We'd have to work something out (and by that I mean that I wouldn't get everything I wanted and neither would you), and there would be a signed contract involved.
I will say that selling reproduction rights to sittings is my most profitable item I sell (I charge roughly 8-12USD per photo, and they cost me about