Although guys it could work as a way to deliver nuclear or EMP warheads without stopping them(recently nations have made progress in ABM techs. such as Airborne laser Ground based interceptors andtrying to use Patriot PAC-3s to shoot down Ballistic Missiles.

My take on the subject is that while it is financially horribly expensive to deploy such a weapon, it is considered to be cheap compared to the political cost of the alternative against certain specialized targets.

 

Specifically massively well protected impossibly high value targets like the chemical weapons plant that Quadafi was building that was designed specifically to prevent destruction short of invasion or nuclear weapon, and which was specifically what the ground penetrating nuclear weapons were being developed to defeat, until OIF made the issue a moot point by convincing Quadafi that invasion that both of those options were on the table.

 

As such the fact that the weapon doesn't penetrate that far but is very efficient at transferring energy into the earth is actually a plus. Consider that any energy directed upward by the explosion has to be redirected upward by the equal and opposite reaction of the energy transferred into the earth. So essentially this is a 1 Kt ground penetrating nuke without the nuclear fallout, or the political fallout. And frees the united states of being put in the position of being forced to decide if a target is worth invading over.

The real question in my mind is, how effective is the Massive Ordinance Penetrator at fulfilling this role?

   i think most ppl posting miss something. when you deorbit something its not exactly easy to get it to hit the ground at anything close to 90 degrees. you would lose a lot of the energy forcing the rod to do that if its even possible. so whats the point when you spend large amounts getting the rod up there with a booster for deorbit and also something to allow it to change orbits. im sure we will be looking at more then 5 tons now.

   better idea on how to use a rod from god make a short/med range ballistic missile to lob the Rod as high as you can. put gps/laser seeker onto the missile to make sure it comes down correctly and on target.