Jonathan Silverlight wrote:


Last I heard, ICBMs don't make 20-odd orbits,

I thought it was 14 orbits.

fire retro-rockets, and land gently enough for an occupant to climb out.


No but it does give some idea of their guidance capabilities...and the
more I thought about that, the more it seems to point to the idea that
if they ever do get in a nuclear war with us, they are going to target
cities, and use whopping high yield warheads to make up for any
targeting errors- which given the low number of ICBMs they have is
somewhat encouraging; as any such attack would leave our ICBM force
largely intact, and result in China being turned into something
resembling a charcoal grill around half-an-hour later...so apparently
they intend to use their ICBM force largely as a deterrent against a
nuclear first strike on China; and not as a weapon for a first strike by
China itself.

Pat