Quote:
Originally Posted by tsofian
I don't think the Hemmet is more rugged than the Hardened Mobile Launcher. Hemmets aren't designed to survive the sorts of blast over pressure the HML was
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So why don't we design bombers to imitate the ruggedness of the Space Shuttle? Which was killed by a piece of frozen foam?
From what I can find (in particular the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists), the HML was designed to survive specific hazards and operate only on military bases and very flat areas. I don't think it was able to operate anywhere that was not pretty flat and gentle, and not especially quickly either. And while it could survive a high-pressure wave it was not seemingly intended to survive ground combat - I can find no reference to any protection against anything other than a somewhat distant nuclear weapon, and that is not very good protection against anything else.
In short, while it is an interesting vehicle, it was designed for a very specialized mission that does not line up well with Project requirements. You could up-armor it, but there is nothing to be done about the terrible mobility.