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A comment on U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test. Parent comment

Re:U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic we... by robonerd on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @03:21PM (#31415225)
> de-orbiting tungsten rods

Over-hyped I think. Sure the kinetic energy is incredible, but what of the terminal ballistics? I think these would have substantial over-penetration against anything except deep bunkers; most of that kinetic energy would be spent driving that rod through bedrock, like an APFSDS dart shot into tank armor. Good for punching holes in things.

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Re:U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic we... by michael1999 on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @03:32PM (#31415349)
Completely agree. Those systems solve a bunch of non-problems and completely destabilize MAD. There's a reason they were never developed.

But I wouldn't discount to the ability of weapons designers to figure out the frangibility and deliver the bulk of the energy to a tuneable depth.

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