Missile from above

A terrorist wants to shoot a bomb down onto an unsuspecting high-value target, for instance Washington DC.

So, the terrorists somehow get a private space company to deploy what seems to be a normal, inconspicuous weather monitoring satellite. However, unbeknownst to them, the satellite is only a disguise, concealing a missile.

Once in space, the satellite/missile positions itself directly above DC. Once properly positioned, the missile sheds its satellite disguise, descends into the atmosphere, then guides itself straight down as fast as possible, directly on top of the unsuspecting target.

If it takes the missile 15 seconds to go from space to earth (120km at 8km/s), the President would never even get a notification anything was about to happen, and would therefore never get to go into the Presidential bunker.

How feasible is this? What safeguards do nations have to protect from this?

posted almost 8 years ago

Thom Blair III‭

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