"A Colder War" And Its Real-Life Weapon

One of my favorite short stories is Charles Stross' "A Colder War", an alternate history science fiction where Cthulu in H.P. Lovecraft's stories is real and the Cold War is much, much worse than what actually happened in our timeline.

I just found out that XK-PLUTO, the missile in the story described as:

Travelling at Mach 3 the XK-PLUTO will overfly enemy territory, dropping megaton-range bombs until, its payload exhausted, it seeks out and circles a final enemy. Once over the target it will eject its reactor core and rain molten plutonium on the heads of the enemy. XK-PLUTO is a total weapon: every aspect of its design, from the shockwave it creates as it hurtles along at treetop height to the structure of its atomic reactor, is designed to inflict damage...,

is actually a real US military project!

The full text of the short story is here.

If you read the story and is confused, you might find the footnotes in this Wikipedia entry useful.  I read the story approximately once a year for a few years now and it's always chilling.

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P.S. Yes, you can buy Plush Cthulu from here and here.   Also, I'm not sure if he's running for President against Obama or not.