kanuck57 (@kanuck57)

These US Air Force ‘Rods from God’ could hit with the force of a nuclear weapon It's not really weaponizing space if you're just dropping things from orbit. Blake Stilwell - Updated Jan 26, 2026 https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/these-air-force-rods-from-god-could-hit-with-the-force-of-a-nuclear-weapon/ The 107-country Outer Space Treaty signed in 1967 prohibits nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons from being placed or used from Earth’s orbit. What they didn’t count on was the U.S. Air Force’s most simple weapon ever: a tungsten rod that could hit a city with the explosive power of an intercontinental ballistic missile. It’s technically not a weapon. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. used what they called “Lazy Dog” bombs. These were simply solid steel pieces, less than two inches long, and fitted with fins. There was no explosive—they were simply dropped by the hundreds from planes flying above Vietnam. Lazy Dog projectiles (also known as “kinetic bombardment”) could reach speeds of up to 500 miles per hour as they fell to the ground and could penetrate nine inches of concrete after being dropped from as little as 3,000 feet. Or go right through a squishy communist’s body. The idea is kind of like shooting bullets at a target from space, except instead of losing velocity as the projectile travels, it gains velocity and energy that will be expended on impact. The Lazy Dog program was basically shotgunning a large swath of jungle, raining bullet-sized death at high speeds. That’s how Project Thor came to be conjured. Instead of hundreds of small projectiles from a few thousand feet, Thor used a large projectile from a few thousand miles above the Earth. The Rods from God idea was a bundle of telephone-pole sized tungsten rods, 20 feet long and one foot in diameter, dropped from orbit, reaching a speed of up to 10 times the speed of sound. The rod itself would penetrate hundreds of feet into the Earth, destroying any potential hardened bunkers or secret underground sites (along with anyone who might be working that day). More than that, when the rod hit, the explosion would be on par with the magnitude of a ground-penetrating nuclear weapon—but with no fallout. The best of all possible worlds (unless you happened to be working that day). Most importantly, it was quick and responsive. It would take all of 15 minutes to destroy............................................. https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/these-air-force-rods-from-god-could-hit-with-the-force-of-a-nuclear-weapon/ #rodsfromgod #rods #kenetic #projectthor #thor