Re:We built a new GPS receiver engine
by umvi on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @11:29AM
(#23235921)
True, but unless you have hundreds of them, I'm not sure if it's useful for MAD (i.e. replacement for nukes).
I suppose if you made the tungsten rods heavy enough and made made them travel fast enough you could get kinetic energy on par with small nukes, but the problem is it's highly directional (i.e. most of the energy is released underground and absorbed by the earth), unlike a nuke which can release all of its energy at once in an airburst 100 feet above a city.
It would be useful as a PGM in the arsenal, but probably not enough for MAD in an arms race. I could be wrong, though.
Re:We built a new GPS receiver engine
by Piskvorrr on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @11:35AM
(#23235991)
I thought that limiting the GPS from the top was to complicate making cheap missiles, something that might be used by rogue states or terrorists; for MAD, you probably wouldn't choose COTS equipment.
I suppose if you made the tungsten rods heavy enough and made made them travel fast enough you could get kinetic energy on par with small nukes, but the problem is it's highly directional (i.e. most of the energy is released underground and absorbed by the earth), unlike a nuke which can release all of its energy at once in an airburst 100 feet above a city.
It would be useful as a PGM in the arsenal, but probably not enough for MAD in an arms race. I could be wrong, though.