5 ms·

What kind of a short-range nuke is going to hit Washington, DC? If it was installed in Seoul, South Korea then maybe, but not DC. There is already a large syste

What kind of a short-range nuke is going to hit Washington, DC? If it was installed in Seoul, South Korea then maybe, but not DC. There is already a large system in place to detect long-range ICBMs.

stonogo 12y ago
The kind fired from a submarine.
- mikecb 12y ago
  This looks roughly down from about 10k feet. For a midcourse or terminal ballistic missile, you want to be looking up, like the cobra dane radars or THAAD or patriot batteries. To find the launch, we rely on infrared satellite sensors like cobra brass, and use radar to track. But again, this would be inappropriate, and other radars would be used.
  - mikeash 12y ago
    Who said it was ballistic? A submarine launched, nuclear armed cruise missile could be potent and worth defending against.
    - mikecb 12y ago
      You're right. That's exactly the sort of weapon this was designed to detect.
asmithmd1 12y ago
Or shipped to a precise location in a container
dragontamer 12y ago
A missile in communist Cuba, potentially. The presence of anti-short range ICBMs would discourage Cuba as a base for Communists. Yeah, the Berlin Wall fell a long time ago. But bureaucracy takes time.