How would a NATO invasion of Warsaw Pact go?
- Thread starter bsmall0627
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My understanding is that some of the first ICBM’s may have had subsonic or low supersonic RV’s for at least some of their re entry.
I find that extraordinarily unlikely. Typical re-entry velocity is 7-9km/s and decelerating from that would require somehow shedding a vast amount of kinetic energy rather quickly without destroying the RV.
I refer you to the 1963 RAND compilation 'DATA FOR ICBM RE-ENTRY TRAJECTORIES' RM-3475-ARPA.
I recall this topic was hashed out a while back on this board and there was a document discussing how some early RV’s had blunt shapes (maybe a different “Beta” ?) and used different techniques to avoid burn up during re entry ? (Heat sinks ?) I also recall coming across references to slow RV’s in some published works re early ABM efforts.
Cheers
Yes, the RAND paper is intended as a basis for solving the ABM problem, but has no such references.
Early RV's had "blunt body" (aka capsule with a broad base heat shield) shapes so they were slower than current "pointy end first" RV's. They were not however subsonic, still very much high supersonic.
Randy
My understanding is some of the RV’s that used heat sinks vs heat shields were much slower in the final stages of their flights than todays RV’s. I’ll leave it at that.
From the wiki article on ICBM's:
"Reentry/Terminal phase, which lasts two minutes starting at an altitude of 100 km; 62 mi. At the end of this phase, the missile's payload will impact the target, with impact at a speed of up to 7 km/s (4.3 mi/s) (for early ICBMs less than 1 km/s (0.62 mi/s)); see also maneuverable reentry vehicle."
Intercontinental ballistic missile - Wikipedia
Not very. Modern wars come down to planning and training and basically zero NATO war plans or training exercises were offensive.
Perhaps with limited objectives NATO might be able to seize some Warsaw Pact Territory before the Warsaw Pact can mass enough forces to stop them ?
A limited advance might limit the impact of the logistical issues ?
The “Why would NATO do this” question seems very hard to answer
But perhaps the Warsaw pact did something else that really annoys NATO and NATO decided to respond with a limited offensive (perhaps they want what they see as an inevitable war to start at a time of their choosing ?)All of this seems very implausible to me but in my view doesn’t quite require ASB intervention ?
Perhaps with limited objectives NATO might be able to seize some Warsaw Pact Territory before the Warsaw Pact can mass enough forces to stop them ?
A limited advance might limit the impact of the logistical issues ?
The “Why would NATO do this” question seems very hard to answer
All of this seems very implausible to me but in my view doesn’t quite require ASB intervention ?
Today WP forces entered Germany, stole all the beer, and then retreated back across the border. NATO forces are advancing trying to get ahead of the outraged civilian population. More updates as they come in...
Randy
Wah the balloons stabbed me in the back…
There has been a leak…
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Which is one of the reasons why it wouldn't happen. There's also the lack of political unity (you need all members of NATO to agree to declare war/attack*), the standing armies not being big enough to attack in force, the need to get forces and materiel from the american continent. Al together this mean you're going to need months, probably years to prepare.
I mean, not entirely. There were some plans to try and force open passages to Berlin in the event of a second Berlin blockade. The largest of these that I've heard of were a 1962 plan for a corps-size attack starting from either the Helmstedt or the Thuringwald area. Still, the conditions and goals of the plan were very specific and eschewed any idea of achieving anything more than reopening a land route to Berlin against anything more than limited Soviet resistance. These are pretty much the only examples of Western operational planning for any kind of offensive ground military action on East German soil I can find. Nothing else under any other scenario was ever planned for, best I can tell.
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