In an call with Philippine dictator Duterte, President (for now) Trump couldn't resist the impulse to brag about how he commands the best submarines in the world and where two of them were.
Of all of the operational secrets, the location of nuclear submarines is right at the top. Nobody is supposed to talk about where they are, not even in generalities. Now it is true that the President can do what he wants as far as that goes. But let's be clear about this: This wasn't Trump disclosing a secret for some diplomatic advantage, not at all. This was Trump the petulant man-child bragging about his shiny toys and how much better his toys are than anyone else's.
But hell, we all know that Trump is really jealous of Duterte. Duterte has ordered the extrajudicial killing of anyone involved in the drug trade and, given how those things go, it's probably a safe bet that some of the people he'll have killed will turn out to have been critics and political opponents.
There is little doubt that Trump and the Two Neo-Nazi Steves (Bannon and Miller) would very much like to send out their own death squads.
A blog by a "sucker" and a "loser" who served her country in the Navy.
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Wednesday, May 24, 2017
9 comments:
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Or he was giving a warning to the Norks....
ReplyDeleteAnd telling a general location for the sub(s) isn't much info, really. The ocean is big.
But yes, like every president, it'd be better often if they'd shut up.....
Where was your criticism when Barry talked too much in his first term?
Oh, yeah, you didn't hate him.
B, I didn't hate hate him but I left the Democratic party because Obama not only didn't close Gitmo down (all the way) but spied more and drone struck more than Bush II did.
ReplyDeleteAnd the hits keep coming...exactly as I expected, the leak of the bomb scene evidence photos is threatening to shutdown intelligence sharing between the U.K. and the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the Chinese are scratching their heads over whether the two boats are attack boats or boomers, or one of each... but they probably just need to ask the White House directly for an answer. And more precise locations.
ReplyDeleteBecause trump is a fucking traitor.
Is there a minimum range for a ballistic missile?
ReplyDeleteAttack submarines aren't likely to be sinking ships thee, so it would probably be LAs with VL Tomahawks, or SSGNs.
I don't know what the maximum range is, these days, of an ICBM. Probably 8 to 10,000 miles or so.
ReplyDeleteMy backyard.
DeleteA Boomer would find a hole to hide in with a short fly time to target. Short and time are relative terms.
ReplyDelete3383, yes and no.
ReplyDeleteYes, you can theoretically launch an SLBM/ICBM on a trajectory that allows any range from zero to it's maximum.
No, you cannot use the majority of those trajectories.
There are a number constraints on the range of a missile. Minimum range, in a military sense, is governed by the shortest distance the missile can strike in a direct launch trajectory. This is constrained by several factors including; launch requirements, missile strength and construction, targeting capability, fuel and arming.
Launch requirements - Differing missile and missile formats launch with differing trajectories and velocities. Artillery rockets are generally launched at an angle from the vertical, for instance, where ICBM/SLBM's are launched vertically. With this launch profile, only a certain amount of "bend" can be introduced during the initial boost phase.
Missile strength and construction - A missile faces increasing aerodynamic forces as it accelerates and decreasing atmospheric resistance as it gains altitude. Turning at a low altitude causes much higher stress for any given velocity, and could easily overwhelm the structure of the missile. This is most easily seen in the depressed trajectory (DT) missile attack profile, where the amount of reduction in zenith is much less than you might expect, due to the need for the missile to not be overstressed by flight through the atmoshpere below about 80 to 90 kilometers. In 1990's studies, the DT attack was studied closely with most literature suggesting improvements in warning time reduction on the order of 30% (7.5 vs 12 minutes) for a DT shot, with a mild reduction in accuracy. Reprogramming a missile to use a fraction of it's boost capacity isn't an option here, unless you are using a liquid-fueled version, which is also more vulnerable to damage from atmospheric heating and forces, and would likely self-destruct on reentry as its fuel overheated and exploded, although the warheads should have been released prior to that point.
Targeting capacity - Missile programming likely omits targeting closer than a certain, unknown, range. Reprogramming capacity is unknown.
Fuel - The more atmosphere you transit, the shorter your range, until your missile breaks up. Also, on a super short range shot, it's unlikely a solid fuel missile could strike unless it went nearly straight up and down, because trying to hit a target under boost (solid fuel missiles being under boost till the propellant burns out) is near impossible and likely unprogrammed.
Arming - The arming protocols of most ICBM/SLBM's are unknown, but likely require a minimum altitude.