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Those of you who are not yet familiar with Project Pluto can read about it here; http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html. You may then pay penance for not knowing about Pluto. In any case, I've heard various conflicting reasons for Pluto's cancellation (aside from the whole 'shitting radiation' aspect). I've seen some sources that say it would have been too easy to intercept, while I've seen others that say it would have been impossible to intercept, and the US was worried that Pluto would have prompted the Soviets to create a similar weapon (whether they could have without the industrial might of Coors corporation is debatable). Given that Pluto would have travelled at Mach 3-4 at extremely low level, I think it would have been quite difficult to intercept. Look down shoot-down technology was in its infancy in the late 60s (I think the radar set for the XF-108/YF-12 was one of the first sets with any such capability), and given that Pluto would have probably entered Soviet territory via northern Siberia, it probably could have been programmed to fly between fixed radar sites (which would have had lower range against low altitude targets). Also, even it if was detected, you still have to chase down (or gain favorable angles against) a target going Mach 3, which is a nontrivial task. If you're willing to use nuclear tipped AAMs, it's probably doable. What sayeth y'all?