Background The following document was requested in June of 1999, and took approximately 8 years to obtain. It was listed in a DTIC bibliography, with no report title, and no information. So, intrigued, I requested the report number, and this is what came up. What is interesting, is that the document, now more than 45 years old, is still heavily classified. Document Archive Weapons Classification Guide [63 Pages, 3.64MB]
Author: John Greenewald
Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic military purposes. Currently, only the United States, the former USSR (now Russia) and the People’s Republic of China are known to have developed these weapons. On September 13, 1985, the United States destroyed US satellite P78-1 using an ASM-135 ASAT anti-satellite missile and malfunctioning US spy satellite USA-193 using a RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 on February 21, 2008. On January 11, 2007, China destroyed an old Chinese orbiting weather satellite. Further Comments on the Feasibility of Airlaunched Anti-Satellite Weapon Systems [15 Pages, 2.23mb]
Background In 1951 the US Army Chemical Corps and Ordnance Corps initiated a joint program to develop a 115mm chemical rocket. The US Army Ordnance Corps designed the 115mm T238 and launcher in 1957 to provide the army a means to attack large area targets with chemical agents. Artillery and mortars are for small area targets; and due to different spin stabilities weapons intended for explosives are not ideal for chemical delivery. The 115mm rocket was subsequently accepted as the M55 rocket with M91 launcher. Produced from 1959–1965, the M55s were manufactured at Newport Army Ammunition Plant and tested at…
Background The term electromagnetic pulse (sometimes abbreviated EMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation that results from an explosion (usually from the detonation of a nuclear weapon) and/or a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field. The resulting rapidly changing electric fields or magnetic fields may couple with electrical/electronic systems to produce damaging current and voltage surges. In military terminology, a nuclear bomb detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earth’s surface is known as a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) device. Nuclear electromagnetic pulse has three distinct time components that result from different physical phenomena. Effects of a HEMP device depend on a very…
Hopi was an air-to-surface missile developed by the United States Navy’s Naval Ordnance Test Station. Intended to provide a medium-range nuclear capability for carrier aircraft, the missile reached the flight test stage during 1958, but the project was cancelled following testing and no production was undertaken. Developed by the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at China Lake, California during the mid-to-late 1950s, the Hopi missile was an improved development of the earlier BOAR (Bombardment Aircraft Rocket). BOAR had been developed at China Lake as an unguided, nuclear-armed rocket for use by carrier-based aircraft, seeing limited service in the fleet between…