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Rain Could Destroy Nuclear Warheads on Their Way to the Targets

Dumitru Popescu
Commercial ECOROCKET
3 min readJan 19, 2025
3D render of nuclear capable MIRV.

During the development of the A1 strategic anti-ballistic missile interceptor, ArcaSpace studied the targets for this interceptor.

One of the main candidates is the MIRVed ballistic missile.

The Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) contains multiple Reentry Vehicles (RV) carrying nuclear warheads.

The Multiple Independent Reentry Target Vehicle designed to work in conjunction with the A1 strategic anti ballistic missile interceptor.

Modern RVs are small and extremely fast, hitting the target at speeds in the range of 2.8–3.5 km/s, depending on the launcher, which is an intercontinental, intermediate or medium-range ballistic missile.

This extremely high speed of the reentry vehicles makes creates high aerodynamic friction their structure reaching temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius. To protect the nuclear warhead inside the vehicle, the RV is covered with refractory and ablative materials.

The refractory material used for the nose cone of the vehicle is usually graphite, while the body of the vehicle is covered in ablative material.

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Dumitru Popescu
Dumitru Popescu

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