"Mark" wrote in message
m...
Have wondered whether the thinking behind the design was to engage
multiple
bombers (i.e. a formation) with one weapon....

That might have been a more applicable reason behind the larger warheads you
found in the SAM's like Bomarc and Nike Hercules, but not in the case of the
Genie, or especially in the case of the meager warhead yield of the nuclear
Falcon. Genie had an assured destruction radius of something like 300
meters, IIRC--not likely to get a lot of aircraft that way, though it does
kind of make it hard for the single aircraft you are shooting at to evade it
(and as it was unguided, no countermeasures could be effective against it).
Falcon only had around one-sixth the yield of Genie.


Somehow I can't picture B-17 type formations of Bears coming down from the
north (more like multiple aircraft flying multiple/coordinated routes),
but
you never know???

The threat was assumed to more likely be single penetrators, I think.

Brooks


Mark

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 23:11:48 GMT, "Harley W. Daugherty"
wrote:

Also the mission
profile during a nuclear war left a LOT to be desired.

Did it in fact carry nuclear-tipped missiles?

(What *were* we thinking?)

all the best -- Dan Ford
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