Philippines is a third-world country. But did you know that during the time of former president Ferdinand E. Marcos, Philippines was one of the most powerful countries in Southeast Asia? Yes. That's a fact. Marcos saw the Philippines as a promising country in terms of resources and financial stability. He had many projects that aimed to make the lives of the Filipinos better in the future. One of his projects was the Anti-typhoon Rocket.
In 1973, the Philippines developed a missile system called Rain Weather Stimulation and Modernization Program. It was headed by Philippine Air Force Col. Ramon Macabuhay, together with a group of Filipino scientists and engineers. The goal of this project was to create a rocket that can weaken a storm before it becomes a full-blown typhoon.
The rocket used was a wooden rocket that contains Silver Iodide. Silver Iodide (AgI) is a crystaline material often used for weather modification such as cloud seeding or anti-hail systems. It is also used as an antiseptic material.
According to several publications, the anti-typhoon rockets are similar to the missiles in warfare but the aim is to weaken the storm. It is said that the rockets will be fired from a distance to protect the pilot and the aircraft. It does not need to fly the plane right into the eye of the typhoon.
Many test fires were tried in the Pacific Ocean and was considered successful. After having delivered the rocket with silver iodide, the typhoon broke into small groups and the wind and rainfall level was reduced.
However, the modification of this rocket was not continued because Marcos was removed as the president. When Cory Aquino took over, all of the projects of Marcos was stopped. There are many speculations about why Aquino stopped the projects of Marcos, but those are already outside the scope of this topic.
This project and its blueprint was also believed to be already sold to other nations. It is also said that Marcos was removed from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) because his project contradicted the project of the United States, which is known as the Geostorm.
Today, the Anti-typhoon Rocket was just a part of history. Maybe if this project was pushed through, it would have saved may lives and millions of lost properties caused by brutal typhoons (e.g. Ondoy 2009, Yolanda 2013, Ompong 2018) that hit the Philippines.
Some MOVIES do this thing also, I don't know what name it is but they modified and can control the weather any of it as a typhoon, thunder, and any kind of natural disaster they also used rocket to stop that thing and yes they achieve to stop it but not all of them if this thing pushed through I think the Philippines will be the successful economic growth today.