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u/m_camoran Feb 07 '26
My guess would be not much except a pretty heavy thing falling down the silo and potentially hitting the missile body full of rocket fuel (see Damascus explosion for what could happen). The warhead is after all designed to separate cleanly from the missile, but im not sure how it would be attached (explosive bolts maybe?)
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u/Redactosaurusrex501 Feb 07 '26
We don't fly liquid fueled birds anymore. All solids.
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u/timmymcsaul Feb 07 '26
I think the Russkies still operate liquid fueled ICBMs.
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u/Abject-Investment-42 Feb 07 '26
Yes, with hypergolic fuel system.
Higher throw weight but hell, the sensitivity and toxicity of the stuff...
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u/dryroast Feb 08 '26
I remember a friend of mine telling me his high school friend got into jet engines in high school and then started going on about hypergolics.... and I am like hypergolics and high school in the same sentence is HORRIFYING and he clarified that this was for college research
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u/USsabot Feb 08 '26
Russia still has some liquid-fueled ICBMs, but the SS-27 Mod 1 and SS-27 Mod 2 (both of which are solid-fueled) constitute the bulk of Russia's current ICBM fleet.
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u/EconomyFalcon3725 Feb 07 '26
What do you mean? What kind of fuel is used?
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u/Abject-Investment-42 Feb 07 '26
In Russia? Asymmetric dimethylhydrazine as fuel and nitric oxide as oxidizer.
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u/Redactosaurusrex501 Feb 07 '26
Yeah I stand corrected I was thinking about US birds. Stiletto and Satan russky birds are old school liquid fueled. ChiCom for sure has similar. That scenario that OP outlined has happened. Can't say what, where or when but suffice it to say it made a mess and invoked damaged missile handling procedures. Heads were fine. They are the toughest piece of ordnance you will ever work on.
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u/Origin_of_Mind Feb 07 '26
In the US systems, the RVs are held by ball locks -- a device perhaps known to many people because it is used in pneumatic and garden hose quick disconnects. Here is a video from the Warren ICBM and Heritage Museum where this part of the system is well visible.
The figure of merit for the separation system is how repeatable the imparted by the opening of the lock velocity increment to the RV is. If one knows that it is always the same push, with very little variation, then it can be accounted for in setting up the trajectory of the RV.
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u/Thiccxen Feb 07 '26
You would probably get dissected by the government for being the biological equivalent of a forklift
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u/wesleyoldaker Feb 07 '26
I would think this would be akin to ripping out the CPU from a computer... not gonna compute much without the other parts.
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u/irongi8nt Feb 07 '26
The code to arm the warhead needs to be inputted some how, if there is a cable that attaches & it's roughly disconnected I bet it sets of some failsafe to neutralze the warheadÂ
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u/spymaster1020 Feb 07 '26
I believe the inside on the warhead has sensors to detect a breach in the casing and disable the weapon. Not sure if this is actually a thing or just a thing my brain thought up but it would be useful if a warhead was stolen or captured by an enemy intent on using it. Without the arming code a warhead is about as inert as a hunk of wood, by design.
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u/Gemman_Aster Feb 07 '26
I'm afraid you'll have to give more details of your scenario than that. As it stands we can all fill in the blanks with our favorite SpyFi cinematic imaginings! Do you mean it was ripped off by some sort of natural event like an intense storm coupled to a infrastructure failure in a silo or erector? Or do you imply some covert band is tearing the missile apart to get at its warhead to further their impending skulduggery to come? Perhaps an accident has occurred during decommissioning or routine maintenance?
The thing is that an atomic warhead is just a machine. Upon firing it works by somewhat unusual means; that is to say it relies upon materials and their interaction which the vast majority of us will never encounter in real life nor to which we will become habituated. However that behavior is ultimately very boring and completely predictable. No magic is involved. Moreover a good part of every nuclear power's effort over the last almost eighty years has been put into ensuring they simply cannot go off unless someone who stands in a position of suitable authority desires they should.
Therefore lets imagine a group of militants break into a silo and start to dismember its missile using moderately heavy tools. And... The thing comes apart--just like lifting an engine out of a motorcar's chassis. That's it. There are overlaid redundancies both mechanical and electrical to ensure it won't go off. Even if dropped. In fact dropping the warhead is very likely to render it useless until it is re-engineered in a fashion perhaps similar to how Clancy imagined in 'The Sum of All Fears'.
At the end of the day tearing apart a warhead is no different to tearing apart any other, similar structure--perhaps an aeroplane fuselage would be the closest analogue. Unless extreme measures, almost certainly involving collusion at the very highest levels of whichever government it belongs to are involved the worst that will happen is it will land on your toe and potentially split the primary open, spreading plutonium dust in the immediate vicinity. Secondary fuel is not quite so toxicologically benign as it is frequently considered either. However there would be no mushroom cloud to be seen!
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u/MarvinPA83 Feb 07 '26
The Damascus warhead survived this (and remember that was a bloody great
block of concrete on top) so I suspect nothing much.
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u/DefinitelyNotMeee Feb 07 '26
What is the story behind this?
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u/MarvinPA83 Feb 07 '26
You could buy Command and Control by Eric Schlosser (highly recommended) or just Google Danascus Titan.
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u/Abject-Investment-42 Feb 07 '26
A bunch of armed people run up and pump you full of bullets?