Chapter 432 Deterrence Imbalance
"8 Keyhole satellites lost contact?!"
Victor swallowed and said, "What on earth is going on?"
The team leader in charge of satellite monitoring was very panicked: "These satellites are all our satellites that monitor Southeast Asia and the Ceylon Ocean. Just now, all of them suddenly lost contact."
"Damn it!" Victor had already guessed something.
Before Edward could say anything, his assistant rushed in. Seeing this scene, he suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart:
"What happened again?"
The assistant took a breath and said, "Huhu... More than 300 communication satellites of Space Exploration Company were destroyed. In addition, one of our nuclear reaction information monitoring satellites detected dense gamma rays shooting from Southeast Asia to low-Earth orbit at the same time."
"gamma rays?"
Victor's expression was extremely solemn. He picked up the phone and said, "...Charles, please report on the status of Space Exploration's communication satellite!"
"Director! I was just about to report this to you. All low-orbit satellites passing through the Eastern Hemisphere have been hit by unknown gamma rays. We have lost 37 satellites, and SpaceX has also lost 431 communication satellites..."
Charles on the other end of the phone was trembling in his voice: "Do you know? Oh my God! They destroyed nearly 500 of our satellites in less than 5 minutes. This is really terrible..."
Hearing this incoherent answer, Victor's heart was in turmoil. After he hung up the phone, he slumped in his chair.
His eyes were empty and he kept muttering: "5 minutes... 5 minutes..."
"What five minutes?" Edward demanded.
The assistant at the side seemed to understand and quickly added: "These satellites were destroyed in just a few minutes."
Edward was stunned. His anger had overshadowed his rationality just now. After being reminded by the assistant, a chill surged from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
Because he, like Victor, discovered another more fatal problem.
He looked at Victor and said in horror: "Nuclear deterrence has failed! Our nuclear deterrence has failed!"
"Yes!" Victor certainly knew that America's nuclear deterrence had failed.
Since Homo sapiens can emit gamma rays from the ground to destroy satellites in low-Earth orbit, and do so within a few minutes, it means that the opponent's high-altitude strike and interception capabilities are very strong.
You have to know that this means destroying nearly five hundred satellites within a few minutes.
In other words, change the concept.
This means that Sapiens can intercept nearly 500 ballistic missiles within a few minutes.
According to the various information we have just learned, the gamma-ray attack range of Homo sapiens basically covers the entire Eastern Hemisphere.
The number of ballistic missiles equipped by America did not exceed 10,000, probably only a few thousand. Even if all of them were launched at once, Victor did not have much hope that how many of them could break through the defense circle of Homo sapiens.
Edward was also at a loss at this time: "Victor! What should we do now?"
Victor calmed down again and racked his brains to think for a while: "We haven't completely failed. Nuclear deterrence still exists. Don't forget that we can also detonate a highly polluting three-phase bomb in the stratosphere above North America."
"Yes! We still have this!" Edward seemed to have grasped the last straw.
At this moment, Edward was very grateful to his predecessors from the Cold War era because they left America with many powerful weapons.
This includes a highly polluting three-phase bomb, which was a backup plan adopted after the failure of the cobalt bomb research.
Edward turned around and told his assistant, "Notify the head of the Nuclear Strategy Office to come over!"
"OK!"
Victor was very clear about Edward's reaction and even knew what the other party was thinking.
It is obvious that Edward wants to expand the scale of pollution-type three-phase bomb equipment in order to restore America's deterrent power.
Otherwise, according to the current gamma-ray interception network of Homo sapiens, America's ballistic missiles would basically become useless, unable to deter Homo sapiens' homeland, and the strategic deterrence between the two sides would be completely unbalanced.
If the balance of strategic deterrence is lost, the consequences will be very serious. Homo sapiens can suppress America unscrupulously, and America will not dare to fight back.
Just like now, even though hundreds of satellites were destroyed and tens of billions of US dollars of investment in satellites were lost, Edward did not dare to clamor for revenge against Homo sapiens.
The reason is that strategic deterrence has failed.
In the triad nuclear deterrence system, high-altitude ballistic missiles are now useless.
As for the other deterrent - underwater nuclear submarines - they have long been controlled by Homo sapiens to the point of being useless.
Now, any nuclear submarine approaching the Western Pacific or the Ceylon Ocean will be discovered by Homo sapiens warships and "escorted home" all the way.
If it can’t get close to the headquarters of Homo sapiens, what deterrent power does this nuclear submarine have?
You can't launch ballistic missiles from the sea thousands of kilometers away, right? Doing so may have had some deterrent effect before, but now it is completely useless because the high-altitude defense circle of Homo sapiens has been formed.
Therefore, it is not difficult to guess what Edward was thinking.
Since it is impossible to directly attack Homo sapiens, we can conduct a stratospheric nuclear explosion and then spread the incompletely reacted radioactive materials to the whole world through atmospheric circulation.
However, this kind of deterrence must have a prerequisite. Victor reminded: "Sir, we must restart the atmospheric nuclear test to ensure that Homo sapiens know that we have the ability to perish together, otherwise they will go further."
Edward nodded: "Your consideration is very reasonable. In addition, the underground nuclear test data of the contaminated three-phase bomb must also be made public ."
It is obviously useless to hide it.
After a while, Robinson, the head of the Nuclear Strategy Office, hurried into the office led by his assistant.
"Robinson, how many B9 Type 3 warheads do we have left?"
Robinson had just taken over the work of the Nuclear Strategy Office. He quickly flipped through the small notebook he carried with him. There were some digital codes on it that only he knew: "...There are 42 more."
"Not enough, too few!" Edward did not feel safe at all with this number: "Take out the 500 ordinary warheads in stock and transform them all into B93 type."
Gulu! Robinson reminded: "Sir, the pollution of the B93 type is too serious. 42 missiles can pollute an area of 5 million square kilometers."
"You think I don't know?"
Victor quickly explained the whole story.
After listening to the explanation, Robinson finally understood why Edward made such a request: "That's terrible! I will arrange the transformation as soon as possible..."
"No, you must finish it within half a year." Edward was very serious.
Robinson was a little embarrassed: "This time is too short. Our nuclear industry has been stagnant for decades. At one time, there were not so many professionals."
However, Edward clenched his fists and said, "Then transfer personnel from other departments. Ask General Electric, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin to send out technical personnel to cooperate with the renovation project. We don't have time!"
"..." Robinson gritted his teeth, then nodded and replied: "I will do my best and try to complete it in half a year."
"Victor, send someone to help Robinson. I will report this matter specifically to the Council. If anyone dares to interfere, they are betraying America."
Faced with the advancing Homo sapiens and the unbalanced strategic deterrence, Edward has done everything he can.
