Intercontinental Ballistic Missile: Global Firepower, The Race to Master Deterrence

By Fouad Sabry

What is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than 5,500 kilometres (3,400 mi), primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery. Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons can also be delivered with varying effectiveness, but have never been deployed on ICBMs. Most modern designs support multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRVs), allowing a single missile to carry several warheads, each of which can strike a different target. The United States, Russia, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, Israel, and North Korea are the only countries known to have operational ICBMs.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Intercontinental ballistic missile

Chapter 2: Anti-ballistic missile

Chapter 3: LGM-30 Minuteman

Chapter 4: Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle

Chapter 5: Dongfeng (missile)

Chapter 6: LGM-118 Peacekeeper

Chapter 7: Strategic Rocket Forces

Chapter 8: START II

Chapter 9: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

Chapter 10: R-36 (missile)

(II) Answering the public top questions about intercontinental ballistic missile.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 19, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Intercontinental ballistic missile

Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are ballistic missiles with a range greater than 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) that are primarily designed for the delivery of nuclear weapons (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons are also capable of being delivered with varied degrees of efficacy, but they have never been employed on ICBMs. The majority of contemporary designs include multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), allowing a single missile to carry numerous warheads, each of which can attack a distinct target. Only Russia, the United States, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, Israel, and North Korea are known to possess operational intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The low precision of early ICBMs made them appropriate mainly for use against large targets, such as cities. They were considered a safe option for basing, as they would keep the deterrent force close to home, where it would be difficult to assault. The use of a more precise, manned bomber was still necessary for attacks against military targets, especially those that were fortified. Even the tiniest point targets can be successfully assaulted with second- and third-generation designs (such as the LGM-118 Peacekeeper).

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs), short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), and tactical ballistic missiles have greater range and speed than intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) (TBMs). Collectively, short- and medium-range ballistic missiles are known as theater ballistic missiles.

The first workable design for an ICBM arose from the V-2 rocket program of Nazi Germany. The V-2, built by Wernher von Braun and his colleagues, was widely employed by Nazi Germany from mid-1944 to March 1945 to attack British and Belgian cities, especially Antwerp and London.

Under the auspices of Projekt Amerika, von Braun's team designed the A9/10 ICBM for use in blasting New York City and other American cities. After the failure of Operation Elster, the radio guidance system was replaced with a piloted system. In January and February 1945, many tests were conducted on the second stage of the A9/A10 rocket.

After World War II, the United States carried out Operation Paperclip, bringing von Braun and hundreds of other prominent German scientists to the United States to develop IRBMs, ICBMs, and launchers for the United States Army.

General Hap Arnold of the U.S. Army foresaw this technology in a 1943 article:

In the not-too-distant future, a device equipped with an explosive so potent that a single projectile might obliterate the entire city of Washington, D.C., would whiz out of nowhere so quickly that we won't be able to hear it.

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union launched rocket research programs based on the German V-2 and other wartime concepts. Each branch of the United States military launched its own program, resulting in substantial duplication of effort. In the Soviet Union, rocket research was centralized, despite the fact that multiple teams worked on distinct designs.

Early Soviet development centered on missiles capable of attacking European targets. In 1953, Sergei Korolyov was ordered to begin developing a real ICBM capable of delivering newly discovered hydrogen bombs. Given consistent financing, the R-7 was developed quite quickly. The initial launch occurred on 15 May 1957 and resulted in an unplanned crash 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the launch location. The R-7 flew over 6,000 km (3,700 mi) and became the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) during its maiden successful test on 21 August 1957.

The first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was launched into space on October 4, 1957 using the identical R-7 launch vehicle. On 12 April 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed the first human spaceflight aboard a Vostok derivative of the R-7. A significantly upgraded version of Sergei Korolyov's initial rocket design, the R-7, is still utilized as the launch vehicle for the Soviet/Russian Soyuz spacecraft, marking more than 60 years of operational history.

In 1946, the United States launched ICBM research with the RTV-A-2 Hiroc project. The development of the intercontinental ballistic missile did not commence until the third stage. After just three partially successful launches of the second stage design intended to test variants of the V-2 design, funding was stopped in 1948. With overwhelming air superiority with intercontinental bombers, the newly constituted United States Air Force did not take the issue of ICBM development seriously. The testing of the Soviet Union's first thermonuclear bomb in 1953 altered the situation, but it was not until 1954 that the Atlas missile program was assigned the greatest national priority. The maiden flight of the Atlas A occurred on 11 June 1957 and lasted around 24 seconds before the rocket exploded. The first successful full-range flight of an Atlas missile occurred on November 28, 1958.

Both the R-7 and the Atlas required a massive launch site, making them vulnerable to assault, and they could not be kept in a condition of readiness. Throughout the early years of ICBM technology, failure rates were exceedingly high. Human spaceflight initiatives (Vostok, Mercury, Voskhod, Gemini, etc.) functioned as a highly visible way to demonstrate trust in dependability, with accomplishments having immediate ramifications for national defense. US President John F. Kennedy raised the stakes with the Apollo program, which utilized Saturn rocket technology that had been supported by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

These early ICBMs served as the foundation for numerous space launch systems. R-7, Atlas, Redstone, Titan, and Proton, which was evolved from older ICBMs but never deployed, are examples of such missiles. The Eisenhower administration encouraged the development of solid-fueled missiles like the LGM-30 Minuteman, Polaris, and Skybolt. Due to better precision, smaller and lighter warheads, and the use of solid fuels, modern intercontinental ballistic missiles are typically smaller than their progenitors, rendering them less effective as orbital launch vehicles.

The strategic paradigm of mutual assured destruction dictated the Western perspective on the deployment of these systems. Both the United States and the Soviet Union began developing anti-ballistic missile systems in the 1950s and 1960s. Such systems were limited by the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972. The Soviets conducted the first successful ABM test in 1961 and eventually deployed a fully operational system to defend Moscow in the 1970s (see Moscow ABM system).

The 1972 SALT pact froze the number of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers for both the United States and the Soviet Union at their present levels and permitted additional submarine-based SLBM launchers only if an equal number of land-based ICBM launchers were decommissioned. Subsequent negotiations, known as SALT II, were undertaken between 1972 and 1979 and lowered the number of nuclear warheads held by the United States and the Soviet Union. The US Senate never ratified SALT II, but its conditions were upheld until 1986, when the Reagan administration withdrew after accusing the Soviets of breaking the treaty.

President Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative and the MX and Midgetman ICBM programs in the 1980s.

China established a small independent nuclear deterrent as it entered its own cold war in the early 1960s, following an ideological split with the Soviet Union. After conducting its first nuclear test in 1964, the nation moved on to create numerous warheads and missiles. Beginning in the early 1970s, the liquid-fueled DF-5 ICBM was developed and utilized to launch satellites in 1975. The DF-5, with a range of 10,000 to 12,000 kilometers (6,200 to 7,500 miles) — sufficient to target the western United States and the Soviet Union — was silo-deployed, with the first pair entering service in 1981 and up to twenty missiles in service by the late 1990s.

The United States and the Soviet Union agreed in the START I accord of 1991 to reduce their deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles and assigned warheads.

All five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have fully operational long-range ballistic missile systems as of 2016; Russia, the United States, and China also have land-based ICBMs (the US missiles are silo-based, while China and Russia have both silo-based and road-mobile missiles) (DF-31, RT-2PM2 Topol-M missiles).

Israel is thought to have deployed the Jericho III, a road-mobile nuclear ICBM that entered service in 2008; an updated version is in development. (See Timeline of nations' first orbital launches.) North Korea stated for the first time in early July 2017 that it has successfully tested an ICBM capable of carrying a massive thermonuclear bomb.

China announced in July 2014 the construction of its newest generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the Dongfeng-41 (DF-41), which has a range of 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles), is capable of reaching the United States, and analysts believe can be loaded with MIRV technology.

The subsequent flight stages are distinguishable::

The boost phase can last between 3 and 5 minutes. It is shorter for solid-fuel rockets as opposed to