assuming the ICBM is a nuclear warhead…. Doesn’t the whole process behind a nuclear warhead involve an explosion that propels the nuclear “fuel” to start a chain reaction? i.e. exploding a warhead will essentially be the same as the explosion that causes the isotope to undergo fission?
ig the same can be said about conventional bombs as well but nuclear is more confusing.
In: Chemistry
It depends! Some Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABM) are actually nukes themselves. They’re designed to get “close enough” and make a (relatively) small nuclear explosion – but critically, well away from the strategic target they were intended to hit.
There is also more traditional methods – this requires significantly more precision, but the idea is the ABM sets off a conventional explosion a short distance from the target. Hopefully damaging the warhead and causing it to either fail to explode or “Fizzle” – exploding at a much lower yield than expected because parts of the detonation process failed.
There are multiple types of nukes, but most ICBM nukes are likely to be Implosion type or Fusion/Hydrogen Type. These start not just with an explosion, but rather several explosions that all have to happen all at once in order to compress the Fissile Material down and start the chain reaction. If an explosion causes that process to start on one part before another, the nuke will either fail to achieve the necessary compression and fail, or will fizzle, achieving enough of a compression to achieve a reaction, but lower than as designed. This results in a smaller explosion. In the case of Fusion Type warheads hopefully the fizzle prevents the fusion boost where the nuke derives most of its destructive power.
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