- Nov 30, 2010
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Ahhh, the old Rod of God concept. Elegant in it's simplicity but IIRC the major hurdle is the amount of energy required to place the weapon system and ammunition or "rods" into orbit is prohibitive.
Currently used kinetic weapons are pretty much any missile defense missile, such as what was just used by the MDA to shoot down the ICBM in their test. THAAD missiles don't used explosive warheads either. But when you calculate the closing speeds of the two missiles one can easily see why a warhead is not required. I believe some systems have a shaped copper object much like conventional RPG rounds and other anti armor rounds used by conventional troops.
These rounds defeat armor by taking advantage of the Munroe Effect. Upon detonation the shaped copper is turned into a jet of molten copper to "drill through" the armor. Once inside it disperses and does some really nasty things to those humans unfortunate enough to be there along with usually causing a tank to cook off. Even conventional rounds that don't defeat a tanks armor can cause spall which is very nasty as well to it's occupants.
APFSDS rounds rely solely on kinetic energy as well.
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