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| CATEGORIES ABOUT INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILE | |
| intercontinental ballistic missiles | |
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ICBM test launch from Vandenberg AFB, California, United States .]] An intercontinental ballistic missile, or '''ICBM''', is a long-range (greater than 5,500 km or 3,500 miles) Ballistic Missile typically designed for Nuclear Weapons Delivery , that is, delivering one or more Nuclear Warheads . Due to their great range and firepower, in an all-out Nuclear War , Submarine and land-based ICBMs would carry most of the destructive force, with nuclear-armed Bombers the remainder. ICBMs are differentiated by having greater range and speed than other s (IRBMs), Short-range Ballistic Missile s (SRBMs), and the newly-named Theatre Ballistic Missile s. Categorizing missiles by range is necessarily subjective and the boundaries are chosen somewhat arbitrarily, and so exact boundaries between range classes are not (and never can be) authoritative except within a community which has agreed to a set of definitions. All five of the nations with permanent seats on the , the United States and China also have land-based missiles. India is developing the Surya-I ICBM after successfully test firing Agni-III IRBM. North Korea is believed to be developing an ICBM two tests of somewhat different developmental missiles in 1998 and 2006 were not fully successful.[http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/04/korea.missile/ [http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/05/korea.missile/index.html] In 1991 , the United States and the Soviet Union agreed in the START I treaty to reduce their deployed ICBMs and attributed warheads. FLIGHT PHASES The following flight phases can be distinguished:
See Also: Missile Defense Agency missile defense#Classified by trajectory phase Countermeasure HISTORY The development of the first two-staged ICBM A9/10 to bomb New York and other American cities was undertaken by Nazi Germany by team of Wernher Von Braun under ''Project Amerika''. The ICBM A9/A10 rocket firstly was intend to be guided by radio and then (after failure of ''Elster operation'') by pilot (astronaut de-facto due to highest point of sub-orbital flight trajectory above 80 km). The second stage of A9/A10 rocket was tested few times in January and February 1945 (that was no confirmed widely as manned). The Progenitor for the A9/A10 was the German V2 (Vergeltung, or "Reprisal", officially called A4 ) rocket designed by von Braun also and widely used at the end of World War II to bomb English and Belguim cities and goals. All of these rockets used liquid propellant. Following WWII von Braun and other lead Nazi scientists were secretly transferred to the United States to work directly for the U.S. Army through Operation Paperclip developing the IRBM s and ICBMs and Space Launchers . The USSR had no similar territory in the 1950s, so under the direction of reactive propulsion engineer Sergei Korolev a program to develop an ICBM was accelerated. Korolev was given access to some captured V2 materials but found the V2 design weak and developed his own distinct design, the R-7 , that was tested in August 1957 and, on October 4 , 1957 , placed the first Sputnik (satellite) in space -- thus opening the era of Space Exploration for humankind. In the USA, competition between the U.S. armed services meant that each force developed its own ICBM program, slowing progress. The U.S.'s first ICBM was the , Titan , R-7 , and Proton , which was derived from the earlier ICBMs but never deployed as an ICBM. The UK built its own ICBM Blue Streak but it was never made operational due to the difficulty of finding a launch site away from population centers. The Eisenhower administration supported the development of solid-fueled missiles such as the LGM-30 Minuteman , Polaris and Skybolt . Modern ICBMs tend to be smaller than their ancestors (due to increased accuracy and smaller and lighter warheads) and use solid fuels, making them less useful as orbital launch vehicles. Deployment of these systems was governed by the strategic theory of Mutually Assured Destruction . In the 1970s development began on Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems by both the U.S. and USSR but these were restricted by treaty in order to preserve the value of the existing ICBM systems. President Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative as well as the MX and Midgetman ICBM programmes. This led to the agreement of a series of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty negotiations. Countries in the early stages of developing ICBMs have all used liquid propellants for the sake of simplicity. MODERN ICBMS Ohio Class Submarines and four Royal Navy Vanguard Class submarines.]] Modern ICBMs typically carry Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle s (''MIRVs''), each of which carries a separate Nuclear warhead, allowing a single missile to hit multiple targets. MIRV was an outgrowth of the rapidly shrinking size and weight of modern warheads and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties which imposed limitations on the number of launch vehicles ( SALT I and SALT II ). It has also proved to be an "easy answer" to proposed deployments of ABM systems – it is far less expensive to add more warheads to an existing missile system than to build an ABM system capable of shooting down the additional warheads; hence, most ABM system proposals have been judged to be impractical. The first operational ABM systems were deployed in the 1970s, the U.S. Safeguard ABM facility was located in North Dakota and was operational from 1975–1976. The USSR deployed its Galosh ABM system around Moscow in the 1970s, which remains in service. Israel deployed a national ABM system based on the Arrow missile in 1998 but it is mainly designed to intercept shorter-ranged theater ballistic missiles, not ICBMs. The U.S. Alaska-based National Missile Defense system attained initial operational capability in 2004.[http://www.missilethreat.com/systems/fort_greely.html ICBMs can be deployed from multiple platforms:
The last three kinds are mobile and therefore hard to find. During storage, one of the most important features of the missile is its serviceability. One of the key features of the first Computer-controlled ICBM, the Minuteman Missile , was that it could quickly and easily use its computer to test itself. In flight, a booster pushes the warhead and then falls away. Most modern boosters are Solid-fueled Rocket Motor s, which can be stored easily for long periods of time. Early missiles used Liquid-fueled Rocket Motor s. Many liquid-fueled ICBMs could not be kept fuelled all the time as the cryogenic liquid oxygen boiled off and caused ice formation, and therefore fueling the rocket was necessary before launch. This procedure was a source of significant operational delay, and might cause the rockets to be destroyed before they could be used. To resolve this problem the British invented the Missile Silo that protected the missile from a First Strike and also hid fuelling operations underground. Once the booster falls away, the warhead falls on an unpowered path much like an orbit, except that it hits the earth at some point. Moving in this way is stealthy. No rocket gases or other emissions occur to indicate the missile's position to defenders. Also, it is the fastest way to get from one part of the Earth to another. This increases the element of surprise. The high speed of a ballistic warhead (near 5 miles per second) also makes it difficult to intercept. Many authorities say that missiles also release aluminized balloons, electronic noisemakers, and other items intended to confuse interception devices and radars (see Penetration Aid ). The high speed can cause the missile to get very hot as it reenters the atmosphere. Ballistic warheads are protected by heatshields constructed of materials such as Pyrolytic Graphite , and in early missiles, thick Plywood . Plywood approaches the strength per weight of carbon fiber/epoxy composites and chars slowly, protecting the missile. Accuracy is crucial, because doubling the accuracy decreases the needed warhead energy by a factor of four. Accuracy is limited by the accuracy of the navigation system and the available geophysical information. Strategic missile systems are thought to use custom Integrated Circuit s designed to calculate Navigation al Differential Equation s thousands to millions of times per second in order to reduce navigational errors caused by calculation alone. These circuits are usually a network of binary addition circuits that continually recalculate the missile's position. The inputs to the navigation circuit are set by a general purpose computer according to a navigational input schedule loaded into the missile before launch. One particular weapon developed by the Soviet Union ( FOBS ) had a partial Orbital trajectory, and unlike most ICBMs its target could not be deduced from its orbital flight path. It was decommissioned in compliance with arms control agreements, which address the maximum range of ICBMs and prohibit orbital or fractional-orbital weapons. Low-flying guided Cruise Missile s are an alternative to Ballistic Missile s. SPECIFIC MISSILES Land-based ICBMs and cruise missiles of the Peacekeeper re-entry vehicles, all eight fired from only one missile. Each line, were its warhead live, represents the potential explosive power of about 375 Kilotons .]] The U.S. Air Force currently operates 500 ICBMs around 3 air force bases located primarily in the northern Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas. These are of the LGM-30 Minuteman III ICBM variant only. Peacekeeper missiles were phased out in 2005 {Link without Title} . All USAF Minuteman II missiles have been destroyed in accordance with START, and their launch silos have been sealed or sold to the public. To comply with the START II most U.S. multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRV s, have been eliminated and replaced with single warhead missiles. However, since the abandonment of the START II treaty, the U.S. is said to be considering retaining 800 warheads on 500 missiles. {Link without Title} MIRVed land-based ICBMs are considered destabilizing because they tend to put a premium on Striking First . If we assume that each side has 100 missiles, with 5 warheads each, and further that each side has a 95 percent chance of neutralising the opponent's missiles in their silos by firing 2 warheads at each silo. In this case, the side that strikes first can reduce the enemy ICBM force from 100 missiles to about 5 by firing 40 missiles with 200 warheads, and keeping the rest of 60 missiles in reserve. It is because of this that this type of weapon was banned under the START II agreement. The United States Air Force awards two badges for performing duty in a nuclear missile silo. The Missile Badge is presented to enlisted and commissioned maintainers while the Space And Missile Pin is awarded to enlisted and commissioned operators. Sea-based ICBMs launch at sea from a Royal Navy submarine.]]
Current and former U.S. ballistic missiles
Soviet/Russian Specific types of Soviet/Russian ICBMs include:
People's Republic of China Specific types of Chinese ICBMs called Dong Feng ("East Wind").
India Pakistan
Israel
N. Korea
BALLISTIC MISSILE SUBMARINES Specific types of Ballistic Missile Submarine s include:
SEE ALSO
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