re: #189 goddamnedfrank

What is the point of these anyway, I mean given modern miniaturized warheads? The increase in payload just doesn’t seem necessary or worth the obvious downside risk. For one thing, a nuclear rocket or nuclear ramjet cruise missile is intrinsically a dirty nuclear weapon, even if you strap a conventional bomb to it. Whereas a conventional rocket or missile is a dual use platform.

I do not fucking get it.

Simple answer? Range. A nuclear ramjet can be kept in the air indefinitely, meaning you could launch it from a spot that early-warning satellites don’t routinely monitor, send it on a winding path that bypasses air-defense radars, and then attack multiple targets before your enemy even realizes what the hell is going on. It’s a purely first-strike weapon, which is why the McNamara-era DOD axed it once the reality that the Soviets would develop their own put MAD in danger.