Originally Posted by
ORAC
Well they are "missiles" not "hittiles", and designed for a near miss so that the warhead chops the plane in half, rather than hitting the jet pipes etc. With the proximity fuses disabled a hit is a misfortune rather than a success.
I'm just bemused at the self-destruct excuse, I thought the telemetry was used to show how close they came, and the self-destruct was that built in regardless to ensure no blue-on-blue fratricide if they missed the planned target.
I dont get the destruct gig unless it was
1. to sanitise wreckage/debris #
2. weapon heading ofrange (again?? the cousin's ain't that gash)
# many moons ago I was "attending" a accident scene when some polite civilian chaps drafted me to "vet" certain bags of detritus, I was able to convince them that all IC's and supporting components could in theory retain code, but there was no sign of a ferrite iron core in the slightest
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