[sci.military] Genie AAM

t-scotta@uunet.uu.net (04/17/91)

From: microsoft!t-scotta@uunet.uu.net


Greg Orman's comment about using nuke's to shoot down an F117
has perked my interest.  I have read a little about the Genie
nuclear AAM that was deployed on the Delta Dagger/Dart(I always
get those two planes confused).  I don't know of any other 
nuclear missles.  So, I am wondering.

1) Does anyone have any statistics for the Genie missle.
   (Actually, it's not guided so it's not really a missle.)

2) Does anyone know of any other nuclear missles or rockets
   used by any nation.

If I remember correctly, the idea behind the Genie was that it
would shoot out into the middle of a Soviet Bomber formation
and then detonate, taking out several planes at one time.  The
program was relatively short lived because of the rapid development
of ICBM capability which was deemed superior to long range bombers
for strategic nuclear delivery.

Scott Avery
All of my opinions are of my own doing.

henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (04/18/91)

From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)


>From: microsoft!t-scotta@uunet.uu.net
>2) Does anyone know of any other nuclear missles or rockets
>   used by any nation.

Most of the US heavy SAMs and AAMs are nominally nuclear capable.  There
was a nuclear Falcon, and Phoenix is at least theoretically nuclear-capable,
although I don't know whether the nuclear warhead exists and is deployed.
The Navy's "Standard" heavy SAM theoretically comes in a nuclear version
(again, I don't know how real it is), and Talos, its predecessor, certainly
did.  The old Nike-Hercules heavy land-based SAM often had a nuclear
warhead, and I expect its successor -- Patriot -- is designed to be capable
of it.
-- 
And the bean-counter replied,           | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
"beans are more important".             |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry