Wouldn’t it be better to have it explode a short distance from the warhead and pepper it with a thousand 1” steel balls?
Might not go in the right direction......................
Did they stick to the usual of hitting the missile in the descent stage or change tactics and hit the missile while it was ascending?
Fusing time is an issue for that - look at what happened with the Patriots in the Gulf War. The Patriots would detonate and throw their frag load at the Scuds - or so it seemed. Turns out they would detonate too late and the cloud of frag would actually pass harmlessly behind the Scud warhead. Skin to skin kills are actually more reliable when the target can’t maneuver.
In theory yes, but there’s (at least) two problems with that: (1) the timing of said explosion; and (2) the extra payload weight of that much steel (and the explosives). That extra baggage would hamper the interceptor’s necessary closing speed.