Russia shows it can intercept a nuclear missile with a nuclear bomb. What if the U.S. just used a stronger conventional, non-nuclear bomb, to blow up ballistic missiles within a certain range? Instead of having to directly hit it?

Watch: Russian military tests new missile-destroying rocket for Moscow

The Russian military has announced successful tests of a new rocket designed to nuke any missiles fired towards Moscow, hailing the weapon as a major defense upgrade. Russia has several programs geared towards modernizing defensive and offensive missile systems as the Kremlin continues to transition away from Soviet-era kit.

 From article, (The Russian military has announced successful tests of a new rocket designed to nuke any missiles fired towards Moscow, hailing the weapon as a major defense upgrade.

Russia has several programs geared towards modernizing defensive and offensivemissile systems as the Kremlin continues to transition away from Soviet-era kit. The Ministry of Defense posted video of the test launch, which took place at Kazakhstan’s Sary Shagan test range.

The latest launch appeared to check the readiness of a “modernized” version of a rocket for Russia’s current anti-missile system, A-135. Reports did not reveal the name of the new item or in what way it outperforms current rockets, but the Air Gorce’s deputy commander told military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda that the rocket’s success was a leap forward in capability.

Statistically, such missile defense tactics stand a much better chance of eliminating threats with fewer anti-missile rockets fired but there are significant risks. A higher elevation blast, while avoiding close contact with Moscow residents, could cause electromagnetic interference with satellites or energy supply.  Russia’s most popular city is perpetually surrounded by 68 nuclear missiles, which would exponentially raise the impact of any fire or mishap.

During the Cold War, the United States and Russia struck an arms control deal to limit the number of defensive weapons each side had, which spurred additional investment in offensive weapons. Per the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, each side was allowed to keep a site of its choice. Absent Moscow's level of centralized national government and population density, Washington chose to guard its formidable arsenal at a base in North Dakota before shutting the program down in 1975. Russia retained its program throughout the Cold War.)

Me, "This is why you can't trust Russia. On the one hand they are claiming that the limited missile defense of Europe from an Iranian missile can be used against Russian nuclear weapons, and is a threat to Russia. On the other hand, they are continuing to build their own missile defense systems. 

They are not only building a missile defense, but are using Nuclear bombs to blow up in coming Ballistic missiles. You can't say Russia does not think big about accuracy problems. If you can't hit a missile directly, just get close enough.

 The U.S. has an on again off again Missile Defense System that does not use nuclear Bombs. I am not saying that the U.S. should use Nuclear bombs as a way of definitely blasting a nuclear missile out of the air, because of the negative problems with Nuclear Blasts, but maybe it should use bigger conventional bombs in rockets so as to not need to directly intercept a missile with a missile, which is hard to do. If anything? We can learn from the Russians." 

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