Adios, Cowboy – Arc 1 – Day 33

Look down. See that? A full circle. I have now screened one hundred percent of the first arc’s episodes. I know that’s only half of the show, but whatever. I said I was breaking Cowboy Bebop into two arcs. Don’t deny me my manufactured victory.

Tomorrow, I’ll have the draft review written, and that will be a second circle completed. The excitement is as palpable as it is terrifying. Speaking of terror: MACROSS MISSILES: THE END OF THE WORLD EDITION.

Pictured below is the LGM-118 Peacekeeper missile being gas ejected from its silo.

The cold launch system ejects Peacekeeper from its canister with high-pressure steam. (U.S. Air Force photo)

The ironically named Peacekeeper is a mega-missile capable of deploying ten multiple independent re-entry vehicles. That’s right, boys and girls, this thing is nuclear missile inception. One bird goes up with an operational range of 14,000 kilometers and ten warheads of 300 kilotons, each, come down. How big of a boom does one get from a 300 kiloton warhead? Based on my quick calculations, about 20 times bigger than the Hiroshima bomb.

This may be one of the most singularly blood-chilling things I think I’ve ever seen. The only thing worse than the fact that this missile existed (it’s technically out of operational use in the US nuclear arsenal), was its proposed usage. The Peacekeeper was a second response weapon. It would only be fired after the Soviet Union/Russia landed a first strike. Its mission profile was to drop its independent warheads on yet-to-be-launched Soviet/Russian missile silos. Naturally, those missiles that the Peacekeepers didn’t kill would be launched in retaliation.

Long story made short, if one of this things ever flew in anger, we were well and truly doomed.

Cheery thought, I know.