SDI WATCH

The fragility of a ballistic missile is not widely appreciated. The Soviet SS-18—the largest ICBM in the world—weighs two hundred tons and stands as tall as a ten-story building, but its aluminum skin is no thicker than cardboard. In fact, the SS-18 is, relatively speaking, as fragile as an eggshell; for both SS-18s and eggs, the ratio of the weight of the container loaded to its weight empty is about 10 to 1.

The structure of an ICBM has every possible ounce shaved from it so that it can reach the enormous speeds that will carry its warheads across thousands of miles. If the skin of an SS-18 were thickened by an extra tenth of an inch, roughly four tons would have to be eliminated from the missile’s payload to make up for the extra weight. Four tons is equal to the total weight of the ten warheads carried by the SS-18. If SS-18s were strengthened in this way, they could not carry any warheads and would be of little use.

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The fragility of a ballistic missile is not widely appreciated. The Soviet SS-18—the largest ICBM in the world—weighs two hundred tons and stands as tall as a ten-story building, but its aluminum skin is no thicker than cardboard. In fact, the SS-18 is, relatively speaking, as fragile as an eggshell; for both SS-18s and eggs, the ratio of the weight of the container loaded to its weight empty is about 10 to 1.

The structure of an ICBM has every possible ounce shaved from it so that it can reach the enormous speeds that will carry its warheads across thousands of miles. If the skin of an SS-18 were thickened by an extra tenth of an inch, roughly four tons would have to be eliminated from the missile’s payload to make up for the extra weight. Four tons is equal to the total weight of the ten warheads carried by the SS-18. If SS-18s were strengthened in this way, they could not carry any warheads and would be of little use.