eccentricity. (The orbital speed of the Moon around the Earth is less than 1 km/sec.) Small launch platforms for space-to-space missiles, deployed beyond geosynchronous orbit, could thus be very difficult to detect, track, and monitor since modest supplies of propellants could make their orbits essentially unpredictable for months at a time. Projectiles launched on command from such "hidden" platforms could then attack targets anywhere in the Earth-Moon system from virtually any direction. Transorbital missiles (requiring velocity changes of several thousand meters per second) are limited to rockets, shaped-charge particles, and other projectiles. Using standard solid propellants, a single stage rocket can accelerate a warhead of 0.2 metric tons (T) to 3000 m/sec with a gross ignition mass of only 1 T. If the warhead were nuclear, its yield would be of over 1 megaton. Such a warhead and rocket combination corresponds to a missile having a diameter of 0.5 meter and a length of 3-4 meters. Shaped charge projectiles can typically attain speeds on the order of many thousands of meters per second, but present significant aiming problems. Since they are simple and cheap, however, they would seem to be suitable for "shotgun” attacks at great distances. Projectile weapons for use against Earth targets are commonly known as reentry vehicles (RV). The technology for high speed warhead reentry has been demonstrated by the Soviet Union in the Fractional Orbit Bombardment System (FOBS) program, and for suborbital speeds in intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programs in several countries. The 1 T missile described above as a space-to-space missile could be used as an Earth bombardment (EB) weapon from the LEO base or from the COTVs during the large portion of their round trip time between LEO and GEO which is spent at low altitudes. If the warhead weight were increased by 50% to allow for reentry systems, the rocket’s Av would decrease from 3000 m/sec to 2600 m/sec, still more than adequate for deorbit and reentry maneuvers. Furthermore, if two of the same solid propellant rockets were strapped together and used as a boost stage for a third rocket with warhead, this would form a 2.7 T two-stage missile. Launched from geosynchronous orbit (either from the GEO base or from a power satellite), such a missile could deliver the reentry vehicle to any target on Earth from any point in GEO at any time, with a transit time of little more than 5 hours. If the launch were clandestine, with the missile designed for minimal IR signature and radar cross section, the first warning of attack might be reentry streaks in the sky no more than 30 seconds before impact.
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