A rather large "projectile"

[musicman]

I read a blurb late last night about a "Government project" using a tungsten "rod" about the size of a standard telephone pole, and dropped from a bomber from extremely high altitude.  I could not relocate the article.  I do not know when this was experimented with, but the theory was, that it would not need an explosive charge to cause incredible damage, and would be able to penetrate just about ANY concrete bunker.  They said that because of the density of the tungsten, the terminal velocity when dropped from extreme altitude would be over 500 MPH.  I would assume that it would have fins, and perhaps a crude way to steer it slightly with the fins.  I wonder what the Ballistic Coefficent and Sectional Density of a tungsten rod, the size of a telephone pole would be.  If they ever make a few of these for actual use, they should name this beast an "Elmer," in honor of Elmer Keith.  He liked big heavy slugs with a lot of sectional density.  The current group of hyper velocity depleted uranium rod, anti-tank rounds, should be called.... "Roy's."  MM

[eford]

A falling pole as you described could have great penetration abilities, and little to no collateral damage.

[BB340]

It would be interesting to see how well it would penetrate a bunker. Maybe useful to destroy infrastructure with little to no collateral damage.

[TN Grouser]

Found it:

https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-rods-from-god-kinetic-weapon-hit-with-nuclear-weapon-force-2017-9

Scary stuff.

[danno50]

TN, thanks for taking the time to do the research. Thats a heck of a concept!

[TN Grouser]

There are treaties prohibiting explosive satellites that can be used as weapons.  But my understanding is that there is nothing said about satellites dropping rocks (non explosive munitions).