Ceratisa t1_ixw5e27 wrote
Reply to comment by mmm__donuts in Britain says Russia likely removing nuclear warheads from missiles and firing at Ukraine by Koeny1
We calculate launch angle/trajectory using sophisticated algorithms to determine their destination. That's part of why we don't always prepare to fire a volley of nukes for every nuclear warhead capable missile Russia launches into Ukraine.
mmm__donuts t1_ixw5o5b wrote
>We calculate launch angle/trajectory using sophisticated algorithms to determine their destination.
For a cruise missile?
Ceratisa t1_ixw5t1r wrote
Cruise missiles are a common platform for nuclear capable delivery
mmm__donuts t1_ixw68j4 wrote
>Cruise missiles are a common platform for nuclear capable delivery
Yes. They're the one being referred to in this article. My question was whether it is possible to calculate their target from their launch trajectory since being able to change direction in flight is kind of the defining feature of a cruise missile.
Ceratisa t1_ixw6ovu wrote
Yes, without things like scramjets these missiles do still have limited ranges, so arc and height still matter. We also track launches with satellites and when possible, long range radars
mmm__donuts t1_ixwh7hq wrote
Cool. TIL. Is it possible to differentiate the nuclear-capable version of a cruise missile from its conventional counterpart based on these satellite or radar data? Or was the guy I responded to originally incorrect?
Ceratisa t1_ixwza4m wrote
No, you misunderstood what I was saying. We can guess if it's a nuclear missile based on flight path because of the destination itself. There are targets you'd nuke and targets you wouldn't and by calculating their destination we can make good educated guesses.
mmm__donuts t1_ixx2ny8 wrote
I'm still confused. Are you saying that we can make those guesses quickly enough to make decisions about what to shoot down and what to ignore based on an estimate of whether the payload is nuclear?
LevHB t1_ixwly98 wrote
>We calculate launch angle/trajectory using sophisticated algorithms to determine their destination.
It's a cruise missile, so no you cannot tell, unless it's a very simple missile with very very simple programming.
The reason you literally cannot tell, is that it's ambiguous until a later point in its journey. Before that a cruise missile aimed at another target could also have taken the same path up to that point.
And as far as can we tell whether a Kh-55 has a nuclear warhead, or a concrete warhead? No we cannot. They look the same from the outside. They might have ever so slightly different slight characteristics, but per-missile flight characteristics are going to vary more than whether they have a warhead, so again no one knows except those who launched it (well I hope they know).
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