I'm John Bashy with Henry Sikolsky, executive director, non-proliferation policy education

center, and signing a new document, Space America's new strategic front line about low

Earth orbit and by inference the moon and Mars and beyond working together with sovereign

powers that are not friendly or not trustworthy.

Now we come to something on Earth that involves space because it's a ballistic missile.

But for these many years of the Cold War and since then the presumption is we're safe

now.

They're not going to use nuclear weapons on top of an ICBM and then again we're not safe

now.

The old adversaries are at it again, but Henry asks the question and so do other authors.

What about a conventionally armed ICBM?

What is that Henry?

Well, more generally there are a number of ways that you can eventually get range from

China to the U.S. and U.S. from China and Russia back with the U.S. as well.

To deliver with enough accuracy a non-nuclear munition that could be a non-explosive payload

of just a steel rod that's given the kinetic energy of the ICBM coming in is if accurately

targeted can destroy an awful lot and penetrate very deep into concrete and other other things.

Or it could be an explosive warhead and it could be on a hypersonic missile and it could

be an explosive warhead.

They're even talking now about cruise missiles that would conceivably have the range to

go intercontinental.

The Chinese apparently are interested in all these things.

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