Danger Room - Wired Blogs - Hit Anywhere on Earth with ICBMs, "Cans of Whup-Ass"

Danger Room - Wired Blogs - Hit Anywhere on Earth with ICBMs, "Cans of Whup-Ass" (Updated)

Hit Anywhere on Earth with ICBMs, "Cans of Whup-Ass" (Updated)
By Noah Shachtman June 12, 2007 | 9:55:00 AM Categories: Ammo and Munitions, Missiles

The Pentagon doesn't just want to blast any target on Earth, in an hour. The military wants to strike everywhere and anywhere, just about instantly, with "cans of whup-ass."

Let me explain. For the last few years, the Defense Department has been dissatisfied with how fast they can smack enemies overseas. It can take hours and hours for cruise to hit, for example. And there will be instances when there aren't hours and hours to spare. So the Pentagon has been searching for ways to, in the words of U.S. Strategic Command's Lt. Gen. C. Robert Kehler, "strike virtually anywhere on the face of the Earth within 60 minutes." The boys at Stratcom call the concept "Prompt Global Strike," or PGS.

The initial plan was to do PGS with conventionally-armed Trident missiles. But the problem is, those submarine-launch missiles look and fly almost exactly like the nuclear-tipped variety. Which means they could wind up starting World War III. Congress is not exactly pleased at the prospect (although they haven't totally killed the idea, either).

PGS Plan B is to launch the missiles from land, instead of from subs. Dispatched from California, those missiles might have a different trajectory than the current nuclear ICBMs. And they could be open to international inspectors. So they might be more palatable. Maybe.

Northrop just got an $8.7 million contract to flesh the concept out, Defense Industry Daily tells us. And that's where the cans of whup-ass come in.

In order to make maximum use of existing system elements and reduce the cost and development risk associated with a future acquisition, Northrop Grumman will make use of Orbital's Minotaur rocket, and a delivery vehicle designed to carry and dispense multiple BLU-108B/B sensor fused weapons to the target area. DID has covered these BLU-108 "cans of whup-ass" before; they're tuna-can shaped explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs) [like the "superbombs" that have wreaked so much havoc in Iraq -- ed.] with millimeter-wave sensors that use parachutes to spread out in the air, then fire downward through the thin top-armor of enemy vehicles to kill those in their coverage area.

So an ICBM launches in California, and 20 minutes later, a storm of miniature, parachute-dropped "superbombs" rains on Iran's nuclear parade? Okay, that is pretty bad-ass. But this missile is still going to look awfully nuke-like when it takes off. And think about the intelligence that would be required for the President to fire one of these cans-of-cans off. We're talking about launching the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile attack.

UPDATE: That Iran strike is looking a whole lot less likely, after the digital equivalent of a back-of-the-envelope sketch from DANGER ROOM pal Allen Thomson. Let's say you wanted to launch an ICBM at the Mullahs from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. You'd only have two choices, really: Send the thing over Russia -- dropping debris over the U.S., and risking a nuclear holocaust in the process -- or fire the missile in a low-earth orbit back over the South Pole. Then, the ICBM would only head in Russia's direction, not fly over it. Of course, as Thomson notes, if you go "the long way around the Earth, [it] takes considerably longer to get to the target than the direct path. So if you're interested in prompt strike-on-demand, you pay a price." He figures it'd take 63 minutes, from California to Tehran, taking the scenic route -- as opposed to 27 minutes, the short way. That's fast. But is it faster than, say, a cruise missile launched from the Persian Gulf?

Hits on Korea and other Asian targets would be more feasible, though.