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jaco asked in Politics & GovernmentMilitary · 1 decade ago

Hypothetical question: What will happen to USA's nukes & their ability to launch them , if..?

each and every one of their satellites were taken out simultaneously?? These tough citizens are going to show the way for the missiles themselves?? I read on the net that if some other country tried marking satellites with micro satellites containing explosives this could be possible.

Update:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI...

And yeah , precision does not matter , but if you didn't know the other guy's nukes were already on the way??

Update 2:

And thanks for the negative ratings. It means I got some guys thinking.

Update 3:

I think you decide which is best. Nobody said how they will know if the enemy already had their stuff launched. I will also vote .

4 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    nuclear warheads can be delivered as:

    1. bombs (obviously you don't need satellites for this)

    2. cruise missiles (Wikipedia: "The lowest cost system in wide use uses a radar altimeter, barometric altimeter and clock to navigate a digital strip map. Some systems may now use satellite navigation or inertial guidance, but these are substantially more expensive...")

    I think ballistic missiles need GPS but I'm not sure. either way we have plenty of nukes that don't need satellites, enough to destroy the world once over, I'm sure.

  • 1 decade ago

    Obviously you really have not thought this through. Do you honestly think that we don't have a back up system just in case our satellites were taken out? Satellites face a barrage of meteors all the time, and even if we lost them we would still be able to launch. You don't always need a rocket to deliver a nuke, thats why we have fighters, bombers, and battleships that are nuclear weapons capable. All these delivery systems can be based on old fashioned tactics. We even have rockets we can control with a joystick, so no matter what happens we will still have an option to strike back with.

    Source(s): Active Duty USAF
  • 1 decade ago

    ICBM targeting is pre-programmed. They could be guided more precisely with satellites, but when you're talking 50+ megatons, precision is not very essential.

  • 1 decade ago

    B52s could drop enough bombs to carpet bomb the planet.

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