Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdcad!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: infrared and interceptors
Message-ID: <26707@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 11 Aug 89 05:43:35 GMT
Sender: cdr@amdcad.AMD.COM
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Approved: military@amdcad.amd.com



From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>Are "nuclear anitaircraft weapons" antiaircraft weapons that use
>nuclear devices or are they antiaircraft weapons used against aircraft
>carrying nuclear devices?

The former.  Several were developed and deployed in the 1950s, notably
nuclear warheads for major SAMs (e.g. Nike-Hercules and Bomarc) and the
Genie AAM (which was actually an unguided rocket with a nuclear warhead).
I'm not sure about the SAMs, but Genie was successfully tested at least
once with a live warhead.  The attraction of nuclear antiaircraft weapons
is the obvious:  it's no longer necessary to get a direct hit or very
near miss.  A significant side issue, at the time, was that they promised
to be enormously effective against the WW2-vintage tight bomber formations
that were then in fashion.  Formation tactics were promptly abandoned,
but the missiles were still in service, with numbers dwindling, until
the mid-70s I think.

I wouldn't be surprised if Patriot has nuclear capability, although my
references aren't handy.

>Using a nuclear device to shoot down an aircraft sounds like a really
>bad idea.  Consider the EMP effect on your own systems, for one thing.

EMP wasn't taken as seriously -- among other reasons, because it wasn't
as serious with vacuum tubes! -- when most of those things were designed.

>Also, it's hard to be the first user of a nuclear device, even as a
>preemptive event.  These would be tactical weapons [but] I can't imagine
>that control would be surrendered to the field...

These weapons mostly originated in "massive retaliation" days, when it
was official doctrine that any significant war would immediately go nuclear.
In any case, most (all?) of them were deployed primarily as strategic
defences, not in tactical applications.  Both USAF Aerospace Defense
Command and the RCAF deployed Genie in interceptors, for example, but
I don't *think* it was ever deployed in Europe.  The expected targets
were nuclear-armed bombers with evil intentions :-), so first use was
not thought to be an issue.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu