![]() Still, the long distances to their targets and the challenging environment of ocean-going submarines makes ballistic missile-guidance and command-and-control technologies for aiming and directing ballistic missiles a daunting challenge. The land- and sea-based ballistic missiles offer the big punch, are more hardened against enemy attack than the bombers are, and can be launched at their targets from thousands of miles away. nuclear strategy, which is the traditional "nuclear triad" of land-based bomber aircraft, ICBMs, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Nevertheless, ballistic missiles represent the two most important legs of U.S. The very existence of these weapons has induced ordinary citizens to build underground shelters in their backyards, was behind the "duck-and-cover" drop drills in public schools at the height of the Cold War, and sparked countless public protests since the 1960s.įor more on ballistic missile guidance and battle management, see related story entitled Command and control of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Some of these missiles also carry multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs), which increases their destructive power. Each missile can deliver about 10 times the destructive power of the bombs dropped in 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These weapons are scary, and it’s not hard to see why. ![]() ![]() These doomsday weapons represent one of the most politically volatile and emotional issues people have faced for more than half a century. ![]() No one is indifferent when it comes to nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). ![]()
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