Didn't the Soviets deploy nuclear-tipped ABMs?
I guess they took Missile Command seriously. :P
I don't know, but I think we may have at one time.
The same problem still remains with nuclear ABM actually. Unless the neutron/gamma flux manages to kill the incoming vehicle (and most such vehicles are pretty hard by nature), the nuclear explosion does not have the velocity or dwell time to have much of a chance of killing a hypersonic projectile.
Note that this is why most of our next generation weapons are hyperkinetic: no conceivable armor will withstand them, they deliver many times more energy on target than explosives, the time-to-target is insanely short, the range is unusually long, and the only way to stop them is kinetic intercept -- a difficult technology that we've developed into a fine art. The US having a hyperkinetic weapons platform and broad kinetic intercept capability will put its military on a qualitatively different plane of conventional warfare than any other military as it will effectively obsolete all current military technologies, including the ones used by the US.
After 43 Years, Russian Missile Defenses Still Ready for Anything
March 4, 2004 :: Interfax :: News
A statement released by the press service of the Russian Space Troops reports that “The missile defence system of the Space Troops is always combat-ready and capable of fulfilling any mission,” according to a news item from the Russian Interfax military news agency. The statement comes on the forty-third anniversary of the first test launch and successful intercept by a Russian missile interceptor, the V-1000 (later known as the SA-5, or Griffon), in 1961:
In addition to the interceptor missiles currently deployed, the missile defence system also comprises reconnaissance means (Dunay 3U and Don 2N radars) for target detection, tracking and guidance; command posts, missile silos and an all-encompassing data grid. The press service said that the Russian missile defence system can perform automatically and by signals from the early warning missile strike system. It automatically distinguishes between warheads and other (false) targets, jamming and interference.
Also quite interesting is the claim by the Space Troops’ press service that “Russian designers are at least 25 years ahead of their American counterparts.”
As for the March 4, 1961 test, the V-1000 is said to have been launched from the 10th State Research Training Field and intercepted an R-12 (SS-4 Sandal) missile carrying a mock-up payload of 500 kg, which itself had been lanched from Kapustin Yar. The V-1000 interceptor is said to have comprised:
16,000 carbide-wolfram core balls, a TNT load and a steel jacket. The disk-shaped damage area was perpendicular to the axis of the countermissile. The V-1000 created by Petr Grushin, Fakel Design Bureau, had a speed of 1,000 mps. In 1961 the nuclear version was tested (without the fissionable material). The test results laid the basis for the A-35 Galosh missile deployed in dozens around Moscow
While the 1961 test was with a conventional explosive, the Griffon and successive Russian missile interceptors were all armed with small nuclear warheads. The explosive capacity of such weapons gave an additional level of certainty to the destruction of any incoming missiles, and eliminating the need for somewhat more difficult “hit-to-kill” technology.
Update: The March 4 edition of Itar Tass quotes Lieutenant-General Vladimir Popovkin, the chief of staff of the Russian space troops, outlining the current capabilities of Russian missile defenses. The system, he said
is capable of detecting ballistic targets and intercepting and destroying warheads of intercontinental ballistic missiles….The ABM system for the country’s central district can spot warheads of missiles against the background of light and heavy false targets and active and passive interferences, as well as during the use by the enemy of other means to overcome the air defences. Russia’s ABM system consists of intelligence means, command posts, silos for launching interception missiles and the very missiles, and the system for relaying information linking all the ground facilities of the anti-missile defences into one cycle.