I thank Russia Today for their finding of a CSIS report in which was proposed, against hypersonic missiles, a strategy of “atmospheric dust spray” that implicitly leads to DU dust use and explains the delivery of NLAWs and Javelins with DU to Ukraine.

The strategy of attempting to break nuclear ramjets with sand is de la poudre aux yeux, to talk French, or bullshit, in excellent English. The co-author Masao Dahlgren might at best have had the feeling of reproducing the kamikaze winds trope (as for the other author Tom Karako – isn’t that somehow a Japanese family name ?) but the good way to intercept any missile is melting it down with a clean nuclear blast. The thermal flash and later shockwave melt the warhead and kill the dashing process of that missile. A clean nuclear blast will have a wider perimeter of effectiveness than a nuclear blast surrounded by DU dust, that absorbs part of the energy. And putting random shrapnels (non-DU) around the nuclear charge threatens civilians under the interception area.

Melting down a missile with nuclear power is not difficult with a distant control of the explosives surrounding the fissile matter in the intercepting missiles. Cf. Sprint and Spartan missiles for instance as well as the Gazelle on the Russian side (also this).