Which one of the following statements best reflects the idea behind the “Fractional Orbital Bombardment System” often talked about in media ?
Show answer
Answer: C. A Fractional Orbital Bombardment System places a warhead in a low orbit around the Earth and brings it down over a target before it completes a full orbit. This lets it approach from unexpected directions and dodge early-warning systems. It was in news in 2021 after reports of a Chinese test.
Watch for: The word 'orbital' makes students think of space exploration missions instead of weapons.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Wrong because FOBS is a weapon delivery system, not asteroid defence.
- B. Wrong because FOBS is about Earth targets, not landing on other planets.
- D. Wrong because matching a comet's speed to land a probe describes missions like Rosetta, not FOBS.
Source to check: News coverage of the reported Chinese FOBS test, October 2021 (e.g. Financial Times, The Hindu)
Answer from the official UPSC key. Written and fact-checked by AI against the official key. Spotted a mistake? Report it.