Mobile Nuclear Missiles on US Roads

How are you doing orangetom.

Originally posted by orangetom1999
I do know that for a brief time in Europe there were mobile missile launchers capable of carrying the tomahawk cruise missile
I believe this was called a BGM-109G_Gryphon mobile launcher.


To my knowledge these mobile launchers have been retired..removed from service.

Yes, as i recall both sides deployed cruise missiles in addition to SRBM's and IRMB's for in theater use but admittedly all of those weapons had a comparative much greater chance of being intercepted and destroyed. Especially the Tomahawk's have proven themselves easily intercepted by even badly integrated defenses as the Serbian's illustrated but a decade ago.

Also ..in many places our roads and bridges are badly in need of repair.
Something like the Peacekeeper would need a carefully planned route and never go over certain bridges in this country. Also certain cities and towns.
This limits the platform to certain routes..hence ..vulnerability.

I would argue that despite all of these issues they are still practical but given comparative weapon costs ( they have much greater operating costs even in the USSR/RF) they were simply that much more expensive not too mention the civil liabilities that might result from accidents.

What made alot of this obsolete is the refinement of the Tomahawk Cruise missile into the submarine launched version. Great stealth can be done here and away from the prying eyes of the public.

Agreed. Since the USN is such a potent force with the force protection and projection capabilities inherent in aircraft carriers fighting from such platforms is certainly possible even if their potency against the USSR/RF would have been greatly limited by it's shear size.

In addition to this ..some of the older SSBM boats have been converted into SSGN configurations with multiple clusters of Tomahawks in each of the olde ICBM missile tubes.

22X7 yes for a load of 154 Tomahawk's ( equivalent to a CBG) per each of the four Ohio's so fitted. I interesting development and even with standard loads sufficient to launch decapitating strikes against most countries single handedly.

Of course a number of SSBMs are still in service and on patrol as we speak. And the accurate range of these missiles has been substantially improved over the years. Most of these missiles can cover almost all of the globe from pier side.

Yes but at a far higher operational cost than road or rail mobile forces for no comparatively greater mobility ( a submarine still constitutes a single point failure; 24 independent missiles not at all) or survivibility. It's a choice but not in my opinion a obvious one UNLESS one expects that striking from a known direction will result in your weapons being more easily defeated by countermeasures.

A submarine is a much more ideal platform for stealth and deterrence ..away from the prying eyes of our enemies and also our own insecure peoples.

As more often than not proves to be the case i don't seem to have a lower opinion of your fellow citizens as i do but that may just be because i have not met as many as you have. Either way there are sufficiently large open areas in the United states from in which such forces could operate without civilians having any chance of keeping track of them; yes, i do mean off road...

To me Stellar..the irony of this is the abominable ignorance of the average publican..American..in that they have no idea how much truly dangerous cargo goes across this nation every day......every day.

Chemicals, explosives..corrosives, flamables, combustables, poisons et al.

It's the same all over the world ( as far as i can tell) to say nothing of what comes out of factory chimneys and the like! But yes, average people have average, and thus decidedly self interested, concerns and sadly that means they do not seem to know much anything about about their country or the world at large. It's certainly no exclusively American phenomenon!

So many people are safe and ignorant behind their TV remote controllers and cell phones..that they don't have a clue as to what it takes to keep a nation as ours running.
We are reminded of this occasionally when a tank car derails off a train and something like industrial chlorine is spilled.

Good to see your posts again Stellar.

Thanks,
Orangetom

My 'pleasure' and i am glad to see that you are still around to share your insights with us. I have started doing the same after my break and i hope to have some useful one's of my own to add....

Regards,

Stellar

[edit on 31-1-2010 by StellarX]

Ok so maybe they are not on the road anymore. The best thing to do is have them run 100 mile loops on private or goverment property. Yes, off road.

Originally posted by LifENcircleS
reply to post by Helig

 

Since when did nuclear weapons become "PEACEKEEPERS"

I found it funny that they are called that when the very nature of a nuclear weapon is massive and total destruction!

To the OP where did you find the info. You did not quote a source and I am very interested to read more about this...

LifENcircleS

Research the word and concept of deterrence to understand why the name "Peacekeeper" was used.

Oh, never mind, here you go:

Deterrence theory

Originally posted by Doc Holiday
I do not have proof or links, but I can say with good suspicition, that the Co. that did/does some of this is TSS and to be more precise there is a Co. within that Co. that goes by the call sign of Ghost Fleet.

These drivers are exempt from state and federal guide lines, always escorted and followed, rarely seen, speed limits do not apply, and there are no tags or visible registration on these trucks.

The fellow I know that did this, says that the average length of employment on the Ghost Fleet is 18 months, mostly because of burn out, no privacy "even at home", and from over use, meaning once they have a driver, they will work one driver too much/often rather than have 2 drivers to try and keep tabs on.

The only load he would ever tell me about was one going from military base to military base, across I-80, after arrival, and going through the wild security issues, they opened the doors to find a single envelope taped to the floor right in the middle of the 53' trailer.

That just blew my mind.

Thank You.

Stellar X,

I forgot to add something to my last post.

Not only are submarines carrying the Tomahawk Cruise missile now days..but also the FFG type frigates are as well. I don't know how many per ship but I do know that many of them have battery's fore and aft of the main structures.

I also know that upgrades have been made to the Tomahawks over the years but exactly what kind of upgrades I do not know. In the electronics packages for sure as this is a field which never remains dormant.

Thanks,
Orangetom

[edit on 6-2-2010 by orangetom1999]

Originally posted by SlinkyDFW
reply to post by jane_within

 

Any chance you might have one of the US currency mints near that area? Large amounts of newly printed money are carried on pallets, in large shiny trucks, accompanied by very well armed individuals, and it's usually flown out or trucked to the nearest Federal Reserve bank.

Could be. It was a shiny truck. And they were headed towards the airport.

These DOE transporters have been around for decades, and were really first talked about publicly in an article in Parade back in the mid to late 80's . While they do transport various materials related to new or serviced nuclear warheads, they never transport a finished device. The three critical parts, the Package, the Core, and the Pit are always kept separate.

The DOE keeps these activities very low profile, hence the security teams are small details, which is one of the reasons that the devices are never transported intact.

Once a device has been fully assembled, it is under the control of the military at all times, and if it is transported, it is done either by military cargo flight, by special military trains, or by military transporters with military security escorts.

When I was an OSI Agent we use to get notifications if a train was going through our area because the anti-nuclear protesters would always try and block the trains at various points. Most of the ones I came to know about were during the decommissioning of the Polaris and ASROC missiles which would be off loaded from subs or ships on the east coast, then transported out west for destruction or to be placed in the enduring stockpile. Somehow, the protesters always knew when a train was coming even before we did. Many of us speculated that they had people who watched for the trains to leave the sub bases on the east coast, then spread the word. I remember one time, a Mississippi State Trooper pulled a protester off the track as the train came through at 25 MPH. The protester thought the train would stop, failing to recognize that they would not stop just because they were standing on the tracks. After that we would meet with the protesters and warn them before the train came that they could stand near the tracks all they wanted, but we would not risk the life of a law enforcement officer if they were on the track and they would probably get killed.

As for the trucks at DOE, they hire the drivers and the security details that escort the trucks, but from what I have heard it is a tough way to make a living, as the novelty of what they do wears off after about a year, divorce is rampant in the ranks, and the DOE has their own version of the Personal Responsibility Program which means any problems what so ever and you get shown the door. The pay grades are usually around GS-9 to GS-11 which is not much considering the hardships of the job.

Nothing new here to get all worked up over.

[edit on 8-2-2010 by InFromTheCold]

a reply to: InFromTheCold
I was talking about ready to launch missiles. We have other transport systems now, just learned about them. All useless against the death ray.