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I've finished reading SW: Shatterpoint a couple of days ago and something has piqued my interest. Just how much damage would a 100-150kg object made out of a super dense metal (in the book it was durasteel but we don't have that) such has tungsten or depleted uranium traveling around 7-10 km/s do to an area? Say dropped into the middle of Manhattan Island.

2nd question. Would we be able to design such a satellite capable of dispensing these ingots of doom with an accuracy of say +/- 500 meters with today’s technology? (Before anyone says that they would burn up on reentry, they would be shielded and have retros attached for course adjustment while inbound.

(this was posted in "Off-Topic" but I guess it would fit better here. If not could the Mods please move it to the correct forum)

It has already been proposed ... using tungsten rods IIRC, I will try and dig up the article.

A kinetic projectile like the ones in Shatterpoint aren't that destructive relative to other weapons (like say, the missiles on an LAAT) - about a couple of tons of TNT, max. The primary advantage of such weapons that they are simple and cheap to employ in large numbers, and the damage can be contained fairly easily. They'd be easy meat for any sufficiently decent point defense interception, though.

Connor MacLeod wrote:. They'd be easy meat for any sufficiently decent point defense interception, though.

If it would be easy meat to intercept 100kg of dead metal traveling at hyper-sonic speeds....why then are we having such a hard time building an anti-icbm defense system against warheads that are much more fragil?

But you did answer a question. Couple of tons of TNT explosive power in a single strike with zero danger for your own troops. I guess it would be useful as a counter-value weapon. Tactical value would be zero however.