Politics and planes
The nuclear strike capacity is the most calculated firepower on the Earth and this kind of thing are the extreme reasons, why the number of certain aircraft like stealth-bombers and nuclear-capable stealth-attack planes is limited. The way of think in this kind of case is that if some nuclear force is too dominating, that thing would addict to "push the button", and that means that the nuclear strike force must have the opposite force.
And the idea is that the military threat, what is outside the borders keeps the military force busy, and that way to think keeps the world stable because of military rebellion would cause that foreign forces would start to attack against those troops because they want to eliminate that threat. So this might be the reason, why the military forces have not taken control of Russia or the USA during the Cold War era. But the thing is that public use of power is different than a covert way to control people.
When we are thinking about the nuclear strike capacity, the primary role of those weapons is to threaten other nations. The nuclear shield would attack every country's very uncomfortable idea and sometimes I have thought that the North-Korean nuclear weapons are like the gift from God for the USA and South-Korea, which would argue their passive attitude to that country by afraid of their nuclear power. So is there something, what is hidden from the public in that program?
The primary role in the traditional nuclear arsenal is the bombers and other aircraft. Idea is that when those planes are sent to mission, they can also call back, and if the military forces use the ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)-missiles or any other nuclear missile, there would be no way to call those weapons back, but the modern technology has changed that kind of operative way to think.
Miniature space shuttles can be used as the orbital version of FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment System)
If we are thinking of the stuff like X-37B(1) and MiG-105 (2), those miniature shuttles are suitable for use as the orbital cruise missiles, which can be returned to Earth. They can send to the orbital trajectory, and if the situation requires the use of that kind of system, they can dive to target.
Sometimes both space shuttles NASA:s shuttles(3) and Soviet "Buran" (4)have been suspected to use as the FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bobardmanent System) (5)-bombers, what can send to the orbiter and equip with those miniature shuttles. That thing allows a very fast attack against targets. There are rumors that somewhere has been created the OBS (Orbital (or Fully Orbital) Bombardment Systems), what would be the satellites, what are equipped with conventional or nuclear bombs.
Sometimes it is suspected that Northrop-Grumman X-47B (6)has also some kind of space going version, which can be used as the stealth-version of those hypersonic missiles, which will send to orbital, and then they would attack against the targets or return to base if the mission doesn't require attack.
Hypersonic missiles are deadly even they don't have the warheads. The kinetic energy that has released while the weapon hits the target is extremely high. If the missile hits to aircraft carrier by the speed of Mach 8, that means that the aircraft carrier would vaporize in seconds. The nuclear weapon like hydrogen bomb can be taken in the cargo bay. Also, normal cruise missiles can refuel during the flight and artificial intelligence makes possible to return those weapons to base for service.
The new robot tankers might be meant for use with those cruise missiles. That kind of system might be the normal Tomahawk missile, what has wheels under them. The thing is that cruise missiles are drones, which are equipped with nuclear and conventional warheads.
So if we want to equip the drones like Predator with a nuclear warhead we could create the device, what can orbit above the battlefield and then explode their warheads. One suspected weapon, what might have this kind of system is X-47B, which can be equipped with the nuclear bomb, which can either drop to target or detonate internally.
This kind of system is highly classified, but those platforms would be suitable for that kind of mission. And the thing is that this kind of system can send to the attack by using various platforms. They can use regular runways, aircraft carriers or shoot to space with a rocket. And then those missiles or drones can dive to the target with hypersonic speed.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
Image:
