And much better than flattening an entire city block just to nail a 50x50 target.
Indeed.
Mere conjecture on my part:
Their speed would make them near impossible to intercept. If there is an ABM device capable of interception, I would think the ABM would have to be of a small scale to react and get up to velocity very quickly which would probably mean a warhead that’s not big either. The small-ish warhead would not be too effective in knocking the Rod off course due to the Rod’s mass, super-furious energy heading toward it’s destination, and the Rod being “semi-dumb”.
That “dumbness” and mass is why I think the 2,300# 16-inch projectiles fired from our Iowa Class battleships (now decommissioned) are still of great value in the right place. Yeah, try shooting those down.