What Happens If You Try To Shoot Down A Nuclear Missile Mid-Air?

It’s highly unlikely to shoot down a missile mid-air. But there's more to it than that!

Causing a nuclear bomb to detonate requires a precise orchestration of events, without which the chain reaction does not initiate and the bomb doesn’t detonate. In fact, the very idea behind such anti-ballistic missile systems is that you smash an incoming ICBM with an interceptor missile so that the latter is destroyed before it actually reaches its target. Causing an intentional nuclear explosion is a complicated process. As such, any interceptor missile that hits a nuclear missile is highly unlikely to cause a nuclear explosion.

However, that doesn’t mean that exploding a nuclear missile over a populated area is safe. As mentioned earlier, it’s very difficult to actually intercept an ICBM. Also, if an interceptor missile actually destroys a nuclear missile, it could lead to the plutonium or uranium core falling to the ground, which would consequently be a radiation hazard that could potentially endanger lives.

In a nutshell, a successful shoot-down of a nuclear missile would make a city-flattening bomb into a mere radiation hazard, thus reducing its deadliness by a huge margin.

#nuclearmissile #nuclearfission #nuclearfusion

References:

SUBSCRIBE to get more such science videos!

Follow us on Twitter!

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow our Website!

[kagurogintsuki]

That's actually very nice to hear

[nicklatino]

This video confirmed what I suspected. Thank you for the information

[lauraharvey]

So why not shoot it with a floating foam that encapsulates the nuke neutralizing the adams and protects the radiation from leaking ? Why is it that we develop weapons of mass destruction that we don’t know how to disarm? Maybe we should actually have a defense team working on it asap

[Furina]

But what about those nukes that go 17 times speed of sound ?

[gk-zbpn]

now is developing a super powerful machine that can disconnect the atomic weapon before even starting to shut out

[daisykaren]

What there never determine is slow near sub crital Mass.

[anthonycostello]

So it’s like you’re gonna lose lose situation

[GegeDxD]

By the characteristics and some analysts, only the S400 and S500 systems so far are capable of intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles.

[SobaYatai]

The fact the video and comments itself are still recent, i bet y’all just looked this up aren’t ya

[thesnare]

What about satelittes equipped with lasers to shoot down then missles while they are above the atmosphere? I've been told lasers are hard to aim however.

[briansilva]

What if you build a giant nuclear domes around all major cities like how stadiums have the mechanical domes that open and close.

[bulletshotfromgun]

Yea i played to many video games, when i shot a nuke the whole Stage just Blew UP 😅😅😂😂😂😂😂

[opena]

I would fear the aftermath...as the survivors turn into maniacs and carry out their aggressions. Thats about half the population. It will be chaos.

[friendlyfire]

Ace Combat 7 : Oh thats my daily job :L

[opena]

So your telling us there's a chance

[Anhka_ak]

It hit that missile that means we can survive?

[NineT]

The best solution is to stop the Nuk before it fired. The problem is how to do that?

[anthonyrichard]

No one No country should possess nuclear weapons.... ridiculous

[sm]

Most nuclear missile separate in to several dummy heads and also spread out aluminum shards making even a single missile almost impossible to shoot down.

[gqepryv]

No it can not fall out would be even better if it’s detonated 15 kilometers above so it is very unwisely to shoot it down leave it and hope it doesn’t explode 😂