Back نظام القصف المداري الجزئي Arabic Fractional Orbital Bombardment System German Sistema de bombardeo de órbita fraccionada Spanish FOBS Finnish OGCh French מערכת הפצצה במסלול כבידתי חלקי HE Fractional Orbital Bombardment System Italian 部分軌道爆撃システム Japanese 궤도폭탄 Korean Metoda rażenia z orbity szczątkowej Polish
A Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) is a warhead delivery system that uses a low Earth orbit towards its target destination. Just before reaching the target, it deorbits through a retrograde engine burn.[1]
The Soviet Union first developed FOBS as a nuclear-weapons delivery system in the 1960s. It was one of the first Soviet efforts to use space to deliver nuclear weapons. In August 2021, the People's Republic of China tested a weapon that combined a FOBS with a hypersonic glide vehicle.[1]
Like a kinetic bombardment system but with nuclear weapons, FOBS has several attractive qualities: it has no range limit, its flight path would not reveal the target location, and warheads could be directed to North America over the South Pole, evading detection by NORAD's north-facing early warning systems.
The maximum altitude would be around 150 km.[i] Energetically, this would require a launch vehicle powerful enough to be capable of putting the weapon 'into orbit'.
- ^ a b Zastrow, Mark (4 November 2021). "How does China's hypersonic glide vehicle work?". Astronomy Magazine.
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