The Lethal Radius of a Salvo

The vulnerability of a target subjected to a series of repeated shots is examined. It is shown that properly designed elasto-plastic structures are capable of surviving the cumulative effects of repeated blasts if each blast is less intense than a destructive single blast. The blast intensity of a small number of repeated shots need not be significantly smaller than the intensity of a single destructive blast to permit the survival of most structures. The probability of kill, taking into account the cumulative effects of a series of blasts, is determined and it is shown that it is not significantly higher than the probability of kill obtained by neglecting cumulative damage.