PUTIN SPEAKS
"MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Russia has created a small-size super-powerful nuclear power plant that can be installed on a cruise missile, which will ensure an unlimited flight range and invulnerability to missile and air defense systems, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his [March 1, 2018]annual State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on Thursday."
COMMENT/BACKGROUND
Drawing form Wiki. The Supersonic Low Altitude Missile (SLAM) was a US Air Force project conceived around 1955, and cancelled in 1964. SLAMs utilized unmanned nuclear-powered ramjets and capable of dropping off thermonuclear warheads (see youtube below) deep into Russian or Chinese territory.
The development of ICBMs in the 1950s rendered the SLAMs idea obsolete. Advances in defensive ground radar also made the stratagem of low-altitude evasion ineffective as did satellite lookdown radar and optical/infrared anti-missile sensors.
The use of a nuclear ramjet engine (developed under Project Pluto) in the airframe promised to give the missile useless low-altitude range of up 113,000 miles (ie. 182,000 km) more than four and a half times around the world. At a SLAM's projected speed of Mach 4 this might represent a 2 hour and 50+ hour flight time! This SLAM would then provide good target practice for long alerted enemy defences.
Drawing from Wiki. The SLAM program was scrapped due to the grave dangers of testing over land or even sea as the fully “hot” reactor ramjet would generate large amounts of unshielded radioactive exhaust/fallout. The reactor heated up to more than 1,400 °C for much of the flight profile. The missile skin might even rise to 2,000+ °C due to lower altitude air compression and friction at the SLAMs hypersonic speeds.
Compare this to ICBMs that in midcourse detach from their hot boosters then operate in low heat or no friction altitudes, can break into 12 MIRVs, drop chaff and decoys, moving at Mach 20 and hitting their targets much faster - 18 minutes,.
Drawing from Wiki. The SLAM program was scrapped due to the grave dangers of testing over land or even sea as the fully “hot” reactor ramjet would generate large amounts of unshielded radioactive exhaust/fallout. The reactor heated up to more than 1,400 °C for much of the flight profile. The missile skin might even rise to 2,000+ °C due to lower altitude air compression and friction at the SLAMs hypersonic speeds.
Compare this to ICBMs that in midcourse detach from their hot boosters then operate in low heat or no friction altitudes, can break into 12 MIRVs, drop chaff and decoys, moving at Mach 20 and hitting their targets much faster - 18 minutes,.
Also stealthy conventional jet engine (eg. Tomahawk) and/or rocket powered cruise missiles can also perform low altitude attacks. eg. 20+ fired by each of the US or Russia's SSNs.
1. Is Putin strategically serious or is he making a politically bellicose pre-election comment before the March 18, 2018 Presidential Election? I would say after Putin's almost certain re-election the nuclear powered missile will be declared a multi-year project and quietly ignored (ie. shelved).
2. Will Trump, as always falling for Putin's utterances, decide that the US should build its own nuclear powered cruise missile, wasting $Billions on Project Pluto 2?
As Trump reputedly cannot read more than a short paragrouph he may be impressed by the above stirring youtube, before spending $Billions on Pluto 2.
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The following, mainly 1950s-1960s, artworks on Pluto SLAMs are from a French language site, spotted by Anonymous and titled "Aeronautical Nuclear Propulsion" based on sources at the bottom of http://jpcolliat.free.fr/x6/x6-10.htm.
Pete