F-35 May Be Used To Take Down Nuclear Missiles

In recent times, the Pentagon has announced that the US’s stealth aircraft, the F-35, which Donald Trumps supposed can’t be seen by naked eyes, will soon be added a new kind of weapons. Notably, these weapons are designed to shoot down nuclear missiles.

According to a Missile Defense Review officially released by the Pentagon on January 17, the F-35 would be one of the current measures to help the US to fight against the ICBMs or InterContinental Ballistic Missiles. In addition to the anti-nuclear missile plane, the nation is using drones equipped with lasers, and orbital sensors which can detect and stop the ICBMs after they are activated.

It can be difficult to believe that a fighter aircraft can take down a missile when it is moving at the super high speed, at least about 6.5 km a second. To do this, a pilot must not be too far from the missile launching position, as well as foresee what can happen, and do all possible tasks with the tiniest error.

The mission has actually hidden too many challenges. As what Zoë Washburne, a fictional character in “Firefly,” the American space drama TV show, said, its success percentage is similar with “hitting a bulls-eye 6,000 miles away” and “like throwing a dart.”

The current anti-nuclear systems will not be entirely replaced with the F-35 because the Pentagon only considers the latest fighter jet as an accompaniment. The newly-updated anti-nuke F-35 aims to complete what the previous F-35 lacked when being first used in the battle of Fall 2018.

According to Motherboard, there are a lot of various visions regarding what the anti-ICBM jet should conduct in each branch of the military, especially when each branch may have a different need. At least, the US has now increased its defense power and been ready to prevent all kinds of hostile nukes.