Russians hit the jackpot, check it out
(twitter.com)
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Almost at the end, he holds up a piece that fits in a missile, has a convex lens at one end and electronics on the other: then we go to a missile that has been opened. Both are full of gold, you can see it.
That's a seeker head for an anti-aircraft missile. What you see inside are circuit cards and maybe printed gold or copper circuits. Not gold in any bulk sense.
No, but in bulk a scrapper can make a very nice living off such stuff, as my family has. :) As we shake our heads at all the wasted gold.
PS Just checked with my gold evaluator. He says, $20-50 in each head unit and hundreds in the missile body. Your tax dollars at work.
I heard some cruise missiles have many pounds of silver in them.
That would be possible if they had silver wire. Nice stuff.
How about the optic? Usually pure silicon or gallium arsenide. Gold is used as an electrical contact material because of its conductivity and resistance to corrosion. For $20, the cost is worth it, when the alternative is to make junk. (We don't flinch at using platinum in our catalytic converters.)
Finally had a chance to ask that. The lens is covering the heat seeking sensor, which depends on infrared light. Regular glass would not be transparent enough to infrared. Pure silicon would be more transparent, but would block other wavelengths. So if they are dark like these, they are either gallium arsenide or zinc selenide. Both are valuable and can be recycled either as lenses or raw material, but of course after it hits the target, there isn't much.