RSA Missile

The RSA is one of the earliest surface-to-air missiles systems, developed by the Swiss companies Oerlikon-Bührle and Contraves starting in 1947. The missile went through a rapid development process with several upgraded versions, and was the first anti-aircraft missile offered for commercial sale when it was placed on the market in the RSC-50 form. The US tested 25 of the slightly different RSC-51 model under the name MX-1868. No further sales were forthcoming. Several improved versions followed, including the RSC-54, RSC-56, RSC-57 and RSC/RSD-58. These saw small numbers of sales, mostly as training rounds.

History

Background

Oerlikon had been a leader in the development of anti-aircraft weapons after its purchase of the SEMAG company in 1924, and the subsequent takeover by Emil Georg Bührle the next year. Their most famous products were the variety of Oerlikon 20 mm cannon that started at SEMAG and underwent considerable further development prior to the opening of World War II. By this time two developments were widely known and used, the Oerlikon FF in the aircraft role, and the Oerlikon SS which was widely used by many naval forces as a short-range anti-aircraft weapon, and in Canadian service, a light-anti-ship and anti-submarine weapon.

Missile

In modern usage, a missile is a self-propelled precision-guided munition system, as opposed to an unguided self-propelled munition, referred to as a rocket (although these too can also be guided). Missiles have four system components: targeting and/or missile guidance, flight system, engine, and warhead. Missiles come in types adapted for different purposes: surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles (ballistic, cruise, anti-ship, anti-tank, etc.), surface-to-air missiles (and anti-ballistic), air-to-air missiles, and anti-satellite weapons. All known existing missiles are designed to be propelled during powered flight by chemical reactions inside a rocket engine, jet engine, or other type of engine. Non-self-propelled airborne explosive devices are generally referred to as shells and usually have a shorter range than missiles.

In ordinary British-English usage predating guided weapons, a missile is "any thrown object", such as objects thrown at players by rowdy spectators at a sporting event.

Missile (1987 film)

Missile is a 1987 American documentary film by Frederick Wiseman. It chronicles the 14 week training course for the men and women of the United States Air Force who are charged with manning the ICBM silos in remote places like Minot AFB and Whiteman AFB. The film shows discussions of the ethics of nuclear war, shows scenes from the daily lives of trainees, and shows demonstrations of training exercises such as counterterrorism, the launching of nuclear missiles, the command and control process, and basic military training. Most scenes in the film are of classroom training, interspersed with exercises in training facilities. The film includes a scene of an Air Force church service memorial for the astronauts killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

In the typical style of Wiseman's films, the documentary is unadorned by commentary, narration, or music.

References

Missile (disambiguation)

A missile is a self-propelled guided projectile used as a weapon towards a target.

Missile may also refer to:

See also

RSA

RSA may refer to:

Organizations

Academia and education

Military

Other organizations

RSA numbers

In mathematics, the RSA numbers are a set of large semiprimes (numbers with exactly two prime factors) that are part of the RSA Factoring Challenge. The challenge was to find the prime factors but it was declared inactive in 2007. It was created by RSA Laboratories in March 1991 to encourage research into computational number theory and the practical difficulty of factoring large integers.

RSA Laboratories published a number of semiprimes with 100 to 617 decimal digits. Cash prizes of varying size were offered for factorization of some of them. The smallest RSA number was factored in a few days. Most of the numbers have still not been factored and many of them are expected to remain unfactored for many years to come. As of September 2013, 18 of the 54 listed numbers have been factored: the 17 smallest from RSA-100 to RSA-704, plus RSA-768.

The RSA challenge officially ended in 2007 but people are still attempting to find the factorizations. According to RSA Laboratories, "Now that the industry has a considerably more advanced understanding of the cryptanalytic strength of common symmetric-key and public-key algorithms, these challenges are no longer active." Some of the smaller prizes had been awarded at the time. The remaining prizes were retracted.

South Africa and weapons of mass destruction

From the 1960s to the 1980s, South Africa pursued research into weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Six nuclear weapons were assembled. Before the anticipated changeover to a majority-elected African National Congress government in the 1990s, the South African government dismantled all of its nuclear weapons, the first nation in the world which voluntarily gave up all nuclear arms it had developed itself.

The country has been a signatory of the Biological Weapons Convention since 1975, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since 1991, and the Chemical Weapons Convention since 1995.

Nuclear weapons

The Republic of South Africa's ambitions to develop nuclear weapons began in 1948 after giving commission to South African Atomic Energy Corporation (SAAEC), the forerunner corporation to oversee nation's uranium mining and industrial trade. In 1957, South Africa reached an understanding with the United States after signing a 50-year collaboration under the U.S.-sanctioned programme, the Atoms for Peace. The treaty concluded the South African acquisition of a single nuclear research reactor and an accompanying supply of the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) fuel, located in Pelindaba. In 1965, the American subsidiary, the Allis-Chalmers Corporation, delivered the 20MW research nuclear reactor, SAFARI-1, along with ~90% HEU fuel to South African nuclear authority. In 1967, South Africa decided to pursue the plutonium capability and constructed its own reactor, SAFARI-2 reactor also at Pelindaba, that went critical using 606kg of 2% enriched uranium fuel, and 5.4 tonnes of heavy water, both supplied by the United States.