General Obering and the Missile Defense Agency want to build microsatellites that look like warheads and decoys to help them practice looking dumbfounded when the interceptor fails to leave the silo. Sorry, that was peevish. Let me try again: MBA, BDSM, ISO: … novel, advanced micro-satellite technology concepts for developing polymorphic ballistic missile target complexes …
Uranium Reliable Replacement Warhead (URRW)
by | 2005-08-18 | 4 Comments
I had a nice discussion with Bob Peurifoy today. He has kindly agreed to let me post the full text of his working paper on a notional uranium reliable replacement warhead (URRW). Three comments, by way of introdcution: Peurifoy’s first preference is to keep the current arsenal. If we must design new warheads, than he …
Yang Yegong
by | 2005-08-17 | 1 Comment
Yang Yegong (杨业功)—a commander in the Second Artillery—has died of bowel cancer. CCTV has a massive retrospective. I have no idea why Yang is a big deal, but it is fun to speculate. This article suggests (I think, it is in Chinese) that he was commander of Base 52, which supports conventionally armed DF-15 and …
Back to the Future: U235 Designs for the Reliable Replacement Warhead?
by | 2005-08-16 | 3 Comments
John Fleck, writing in the Albuquerque Journal, reports some folks think the reliable replacement warhead program should emphasize uranium designs: A veteran of the U.S. nuclear weapons program thinks the weaponeers should consider giving up on plutonium. In a paper informally circulating among senior government advisers, retired Sandia National Laboratories vice president Bob Peurifoy argues …
