SPRINT ABM - Zero to Mach 10 in 5 Seconds!

When it comes to going fast through the atmosphere I always think of the Sprint anti-ballistic missile [1]. From zero to Mach 10 in five seconds, accelerating at 100 g, glowing white with a skin temperature of thousands of degrees, to intercept an incoming ICBM that is less than 10 seconds away from impact by detonating its own low-yield thermonuclear warhead in front of the target. There are also a few bits of footage [2] on YouTube. [1] link [2] ▶ this video

There is a long history of using nukes to intercept missiles. Here's one of the USA's (ancient) efforts:[1] Both missiles [long range and short range] used nuclear warheads, and they relied on destroying or damaging the incoming warhead with radiation rather than heat or blast. The technology was quite impressive for its time. A Youtube video is titled "SPRINT ABM - Zero to Mach 10 in 5 Seconds", with a caption in the video pointing out "white hot skin". [2] [1] link [2] ▶ this video

The USA has had Mach 23 ICBMs [1] and Mach 10 anti-ICBMs [2][2.2] since the 60s and 70s respectively. The Sprint rocket actually glows white hot because of its high speed. [1] link [2] link [2.2] ▶ this video

It's worthwhile watching the launch of the Chinese Long March vehicle: link They appear to shoot the entire vehicle out of a cannon-like container, then air-ignite the booster. I can't think of another launch vehicle that does this. The US did this sort of launch for the Sprint anti-ballistic missile: ▶ this video

Here is a US missile maneuvering at mach 10 to intercept a RV going at mach 30. In 1972. ▶ this video Russia loves to brag about weapons that can overcome US defenses because people for some reason have forgotten that the top-level strategic "defense" is not an impenetrable wall of interception systems -- which literally no nation on earth has the budget to effectively maintain, even the US, because the economics of intercept are terrible -- but rather the policy of mutually assured destruction. This has been the case throughout the entire planning cycle of nearly every piece of hardware in use by the US armed forces and it will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.

Actual numbers, haven't tried to calculate. But the heat load due to atmospheric friction would be immense and immediate. The US built an antiballistic missile system that included a missile called Sprint [1]. It accelerated at 100G and developed temperatures of over 3000°C less than 5 seconds after launch. A video here [2]. It's a formidible engineering challenge to make a vehicle and payload that will survive such a difficult flight regime with commercially attractive economics. At this point, I don't understand SpinLaunch's advantage over earlier projectile systems (Gerald Bull) or current launchers like SpaceX. This will be interesting to follow. [1] link [2] ▶ this video

Here is a video of the awesome Sprint ABM missile - (0 to Mach 10 in 5 seconds) - it includes a near miss of an ICBM RV and the RV makes the Sprint look slow : ▶ this video Edit: Sprint was meant to defend against ICBMs - but the idea is the same, ballistic missile warheads are going very fast and really aren't that big.

This clip of a Sprint ABM test gives some idea of how incredibly fast ICBM RVs are - it makes the 0-Mach 10 in 5 seconds Sprint look like it is hardly moving: ▶ this video

This video of the Sprint ABM missile (0 to Mach 10 in 5 seconds!) shows it intercepting a ICBM RV in a test - given the speed of the RV it does look like the missile is aiming where the RV is going to be rather than where it is - and this is from the 1970s: ▶ this video