For those of you playing along at home, the circular error probability of a Minuteman III ICBM is 120m, and its range is 13,000km. We would also have accepted 200m for those of you with older reference material. Not bad for an upgraded 1960's design. To put it in gun-person terms, that's sub-MOA at a stationary target located halfway across the world.
In related news, Iran has unveiled underground silos for their missile force. I guess they hope that deep holes make for untouchable missiles or something. My guess is that hitting within 120m of a missile silo with a 400-500 kiloton payload would do enough damage to make it inoperable. You don't have to destroy the bullets, you just have to disable the gun.
The image I have when I think of Iran is the little dog that keeps nipping at a bigger dog because he doesn't believe the big dog will ever take the time to bite back. Someday, that big dog chews the little dog in half, and I think that someday with Iran is not far off.
Someone needs to tell the Iranian government that any use of a Shahab-3 from one of these silos against any of the countries we care about will be considered an act of war against the United States. Heaven help them if they mate an atomic weapon up to one and give it a whirl. Nothing says "Regional Stabilization" like a set of mushroom clouds over Iranian launch sites.
2 comments:
While I agree with your assessment, I do believe it will take a CIC with a bigger pair of stones than the one currently occupying the office to back that play.
Not going to find an argument to that here, Shepherd
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