Could Ireland build a missile?

RobitTV

With the recent failure of the north Korean missile/rocket, it has made me think!

Do you think Ireland has the technology and power to make a missile and make it launch successfully?

If you exclude Our economic troubles, would it be possible?

xflyer

Yes it would be possible. There is no technical reason it couldn't be done if enough money was thrown at it. The real difficulty would be producing the nuclear warhead to go on top of it so we can target Finland or Switzerland. It wouldn't be a good idea to target a NATO country or a nuclear armed one. So we should reserve our hostility to far away non aligned, non nuclear countries. One of those countries, if we are to believe their apologists, is Iran. :rolleyes:

KickstartHeart

According to the CIA fact book, yes.

Jawgap

Yep.....

http://www.irishrocketry.com/index.php

AlmightyCushion

Jawgap wrote: »

Yep.....

http://www.irishrocketry.com/index.php

The rockets on that site seem a lot smaller than the ones North Korea are trying to launch. I doubt we've ever launched our own satellite, so what's the most powerful rocket we've ever successfully launched.

Manach

I suppose if we wished to go down the rocket route, offer prize money to the Private Sector/Enthusists and see what they come up with. I'm sure the US will not mind us testing off the Atlantic cost.

Donny5

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

The rockets on that site seem a lot smaller than the ones North Korea are trying to launch. I doubt we've ever launched our own satellite, so what's the most powerful rocket we've ever successfully launched.

We certainly couldn't launch our own satellites. For one thing, it would be very hard to launch one from our latitude, but we also couldn't afford it. A single Ariane 5 launch costs upwards of €100 million, not including the payload. Soyuz costs around €80 million. If we wanted to weaponise either, we'd need to build our own launch facilities, which would cost hundreds of millions, develop terminal guidance systems, which would cost who-knows how much and then a warhead of some kind, which if nuclear, would bankrupt the country.

goldie fish

We don't need to launch our own anything, that's what being a member of ESA means.

Walter mitty forum anyone?

KickstartHeart

goldie fish wrote: »

We don't need to launch our own anything, that's what being a member of ESA means.

Walter mitty forum anyone?

+1

Jawgap

The short answer is yes, the related question is why would we?

According to Enterprise Ireland, we have the following space-related capabilities:

• Propulsions subsystems (regulators, valves)
• On board Software / Independent Software Validation
• Hi- rel thermistors
• Passive Optical Components
• Optics, Opto electronics
• Advanced Composite Structures
• Microwave components /Radiometers
• Data acquisition and control Units

johngalway

We don't need a nuclear warhead. We can threaten to launch Eamon O'Cuiv at them, that should scare any modern nation :eek:

May need a second rocket for his ego though.

warwick

The only guided missiles the Defence Forces have ever launched (to my knowledge) were RBS70s fired at drones on a range in Sweden.

paddyandy

We can do anything but we are too competitive and that fact destroys a lot of good .Trust is lacking too but that's all .

ronan45

Hmmm

If we could maybe we could buy some refined uranium then threaten the eu to write off our debts :eek::D

paddyandy

Maybe pipe some of this Rain out to the Gulf in exchange for Oil and Sand ?

Jawgap

Who needs a ballistic missile - $1.5m gets you a tactical tomahawk - fire it from Cork and it's goodnight Madrid:)

Markcheese

Since anything u chuck is a missile, YES.
Half a brick, a bit of concrete block...we've a huge stock of these potential missiles... Now who do we want to lob them at..and I suppose from a gost estate in Leitrim, dail erin is out of range.

Kat1170

Donny5 wrote: »

We certainly couldn't launch our own satellites. For one thing, it would be very hard to launch one from our latitude, but we also couldn't afford it. A single Ariane 5 launch costs upwards of €100 million, not including the payload. Soyuz costs around €80 million. If we wanted to weaponise either, we'd need to build our own launch facilities, which would cost hundreds of millions, develop terminal guidance systems, which would cost who-knows how much and then a warhead of some kind, which if nuclear, would bankrupt the country.

Think its a bit late for that

Border-Rat

The Provisional IRA had an ex employee of NASA working on a surface-to-air missile system.

Manic Moran

warwick wrote: »

The only guided missiles the Defence Forces have ever launched (to my knowledge) were RBS70s fired at drones on a range in Sweden.

The odd Javelin was fired in the Curragh, I do believe.

Morpheus

Javelins are fired in ireland for AT training.
The MILAN is a guided weapon too (the Jav replaced that).

Also google RBS 70 videos on youtube - see clips of them being fired at drogues pulled behind cessna type aircraft... we already do this with the bofors. there is no reason why in ireland we cannot fire the training shots from this weapon on the usual AA ranges - unless we have no training warheads and missiles?

Stovepipe

Hi there,
Ireland could easily build the airframe of a missile, such as an air-to-air or a ground-launched missile because such airframes and their launch systems are simple enough. It's the steering and guidance technology that'd be the hardest part, but Ireland's technological level is probably good enough to design and build them. Our aerospace industry is quite good in terms of overhauling aircraft and their subsytems so that the actual work skills required to build them would be there. Even if all we did was license-build a foreign missile, I'm sure, nationally, we could evolve our own before too long.
regards
Stovepipe

Donny5

Stovepipe wrote: »

Hi there,
Ireland could easily build the airframe of a missile, such as an air-to-air or a ground-launched missile because such airframes and their launch systems are simple enough. It's the steering and guidance technology that'd be the hardest part, but Ireland's technological level is probably good enough to design and build them. Our aerospace industry is quite good in terms of overhauling aircraft and their subsytems so that the actual work skills required to build them would be there. Even if all we did was license-build a foreign missile, I'm sure, nationally, we could evolve our own before too long.
regards
Stovepipe

If we're talking about short to medium range missiles, then, as a country, we definitely could build one. I'd be fairly confident that given a few months, Google and a few thousand Euro, I personally could probably build a short range surface to surface guided missile. Autonomous target acquisition and warheads, though, would be a different story.