We are unlikely to see “rods from God” because it would make much of our own armor obsolete. Like Carriers, certain things are sacrosanct. Too many Flag Officer positions would be jeapordized. Heck “rods from God” would put and end to surface fleets too. No one wants to go there.
I’ll circle back to Rods from God in just a second ...
Imagine the world in 1945. The US has atomic weapons. No one else does. Of course there are scientists and spies and so this situation will change shortly.
Imagine the US announces that these are terrible weapons and should never be used. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were tragedies and should not be repeated. THEREFORE no other country will be permitted to have atomic weapons. Only the US.
Any country — Russia, China, France, even the UK — which experiments with these terrible weapons will risk nuclear attack from the US. Yup — we’re willing to nuke London if the UK performs an atomic test. So don’t. Just ... don’t.
I say we’d like a world today in which nuclear war was not a threat. Maybe ... MAYBE ... along the way we might have nuked Pakistan or something because they just had to go and test an atomic device. Well ... they learned their lesson, didn’t they?
Now, Rods from God —
I say we develop this weapon and announce that any OTHER country which tests such a thing will be attacked by the US with our VAST, PROVEN FLEET of orbiting platforms. AND we will fry their communications satellites with lasers. We will blind and cripple ANY nation which tries to get into the Rods From God business.
We would be the only country in the world with this capability. And we could use them to maintain the peace. Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait?? Stand back and watch this ...