FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment Systems) are nuclear weapons. Positioned in low or medium orbital. In the Cold War, the Soviets and U.S. forces planned to place different sizes of nuclear weapons in space, where those systems could make a very fast attack against the enemy.
In some plans modified CORONA or Progress capsule would act as weapon carriers. The size of those nuclear weapons that could reach Earth is planned to be from a couple of kilotons to 50 megatons.
The space nukes might not be dangerous for people on the ground. Their targets are other satellites and incoming missiles.
Most of those space nukes would be EMP weapons. The idea is that the nuclear weapon that detonated in a low orbiter creates an electromagnetic pulse. That EMP weapon should shut down enemy satellites. And communication systems. And of course, the central computer centers are in danger.
The EMP impulse can destroy aircraft's computers and that can destroy airborne aircraft. And those systems can also affect the nuclear power plant's control systems. So this ability makes them extremely dangerous if the nuclear power plants do not shut down.
The nuclear test "Dominick Starfish Prime" proved the power of the EMP impulse. On June 9, 1962, the "Thor" rocket, launched from Johnson Island carried 2 megaton thermonuclear weapon. That detonated over Honolulu. Detonation caused EMP impulse that destroyed electronics in that city. Those electronic components were more primitive and less vulnerable to the nuclear weapon's EMP effect than modern electronics.
All nukes that detonate in space form EMP pulse if their electromagnetic radiation affects the upper atmosphere. The X-ray radiation from the nuclear weapon impacts atoms. And that emission forms the EMP effect. In nuclear policy, there are contracts whose purpose is to demilitarize space.
But things like navigation and recon satellites are suitable and good targets for ASAT (Anti-Satellite) weapons. Those navigation and recon systems have a key role in targeting GPS-guided weapons. Destruction of those GPS satellites makes those systems useless. And one way to destroy the GPS satellites is the spaceborne nukes.
The modern military uses GPS to locate their own troop's positions. Those GPS systems are key elements in systems like HiMARS and JDAM's accuracy. Without those satellites, those precise guide weapons are not as effective as they should be.
Those nukes destroy also their satellites. But then if the replacements can launch to the orbiter fast after the detonation, that thing could theoretically replace its losses. In real life, there is high-energy plasma a long time after detonation. And that thing can make the orbiter useless for a long time. Those GPS satellites don't mean so much if the forces do not use GPS or precise guided weapons.
https://www.reuters.com/world/what-is-space-based-nuclear-weapon-us-says-russia-is-developing-2024-02-15/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25951796/putin-russia-nuclear-space-weapon-cosmos/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment_System
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Direct_Attack_Munition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M142_HIMARS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_(spacecraft)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime
https://learningmachines9.wordpress.com/2024/02/15/russia-plans-to-position-nukes-in-space/
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