Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: jb7m+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon C. R. Bennett) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Tomahawks Message-ID: <1991Jan19.035621.3593@cbnews.att.com> Date: 19 Jan 91 03:56:21 GMT References: <1991Jan18.005043.9622@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 48 Approved: military@att.att.com From: "Jon C. R. Bennett" > Watching the news last night, I became was fascinated by so called > "experts" comments on the accuracy of the Tomahawk cruise missle. > Some supplied statistics such as CEP radius, range, speed, etc. > However, this only wet my appetite for more information. > > Some questions to those in the know: > > 1) What is the effective payload of the missle at strike distances of > several hundred miles? What types of payloads can these things deliver? They have a payload of several hundred pounds, which i do not belive is variable based on range. And can be armed with HE warheads, cluster submunitions, tactial nukes, and anti ship warheads. > 2) Their guidance systems are reportedly visually keyed using a > complicated mission planning system to identify the landmarks along > the intended flight path, and evetually the target itself. Where does > the information used to program these flight paths come from? I would > expect that most satellite images would be two dimensional in nature > and would not be terribly suitable for programming of this sort weapon > by themselves. However, if these images were bound to some sort of > elevation/contour map of sufficient resolution, I would expect we > could generate a reasonable mission preview. Is U.S. satellite > technology so good that we can construct a 3-d image of the mission > plan with resolutions to a few feet, It is quite possible to build a 3D map from 2D data, the opening credits to CNN's "Technology Today" which is view flying over a 3D terain (San Fransico Bay) was created from 2D Landsat data by having a computer compare the shadows cast by the sun at different times of the day. It is also possible to get 3D data directly using radar equiped satalites, which are reported to have very good resolution (measured in feet or less). > and do so fast enough to make > these weapons useful in a changing battlefield, or am I totally off > base as to how this system works. One would assume that in the past few months most of Iraq has been mapped quite well, since execpt for the desert regions (of which Iraq is not mostly composed of) the land does not move on a day to day basis, the US for instance has complete maps of the Soviet Union, for just this reason. So it should be possible to target anything in Iraq with cruise missles at basicly a moments notice jon