FOBS

The Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) was a Soviet ICBM program in the 1960s that after launch would go into a low Earth orbit and would then de-orbit for an attack. The development of the FOBS was one of the first steps taken by the Soviet Union to utilize space for the delivery of nuclear warheads. The primary objective of the FOBS was to bypass the weapon detection systems in the United States. In order to accomplish this, the FOBS was designed to briefly place nuclear warheads into the Earth’s orbit. After orbiting for a short period of time, the bombs would deploy and fall to their targets from space. The system shares many similarities with the concept of kinetic bombardment systems, with the exception of the use of a nuclear warhead as opposed to an inert projectile. This weapon system also had no range limit and the orbital flight path would not reveal the target location. This would allow a path to North America over the South Pole, hitting targets from the south, which is the opposite direction from which NORAD early warning systems are oriented.

A weapon with this capability was first demonstrated by the Soviet SS-9 Scarp, which was capable of space-launch, in 1967. However, the accuracy of these FOBS missiles was unclear, because they only partially orbited earth and had lower re-entry angles.

The FOBS testing and development most likely indicated that the leadership in the Soviet Union viewed space as the ultimate high ground. This means they saw space as the ideal medium from which they could deploy nuclear weapons. Space was seen as ideal, because it would allow the Soviet Union to quickly and efficiently deploy nuclear weapons, which would be able to reach their target in an incredibly short amount of time. The bombs would not have to travel from continent to continent. Instead, they would fall from earth’s orbit, thus decreasing the overall flight time.

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 banned nuclear weapons in Earth orbit. Even though the Outer Space Treaty was passed, the military and government leadership in the United States determined that a FOBS missile was technically not in orbit, because it did not make a complete cycle around the earth, and therefore decided not to officially ban it.

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