Missile defense systems by country

Missile defense systems are a type of missile defense intended to shield a country against incoming missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) or other ballistic missiles. The United States, Russia, France, India and Israel have all developed missile defense systems.

Definitions

The role of defense against nuclear missiles has been a heated military and political topic for several decades.

China

China tested the FJ ABM in the Cold War but they were ultimately cancelled. The PLA has currently developed the KT series of anti ballistic missiles and also have adopted limited anti ballistic capabilities on the HQ-9, KS series, and HQ-16.

China successfully tested its exoatmospheric interception capability in a test in 2010 and also in a test in 2013, being the second of two countries able to do so.

Missile defense

Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and destruction of attacking missiles. Originally conceived as a defence against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), its application has broadened to include shorter-ranged non-nuclear tactical and theater missiles.

The United States, Russia, China, India, Israel, and France have all developed such air defense systems. In the United States, missile defense was originally the responsibility of the U.S. Army. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has developed maritime systems and command and control that will eventually be transferred to the Navy and Air Force for operation and sustainment.

Missile defense categories

Missile defense can be divided into categories based on various characteristics: type/range of missile intercepted, the trajectory phase where the intercept occurs, and whether intercepted inside or outside the Earth's atmosphere:

Type/range of missile intercepted

Ballistic missile

A ballistic missile is a missile (rocket) that follows a ballistic trajectory with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. A ballistic missile is only guided during relatively brief periods of flight (there are unguided ballistic missiles as well, such as 9K52 Luna-M, although these may well be considered rockets), and most of its trajectory is unpowered and governed by gravity and air resistance if in the atmosphere. This contrasts to a cruise missile, which is aerodynamically guided in powered flight. Long range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) are launched at a steep, sub-orbital flight trajectory and spend most of their flight out of the atmosphere. Shorter range ballistic missiles stay within the Earth's atmosphere.

History

Rockets have been used as weapons for a long time (see History of rockets). A pioneer ballistic missile was the A-4, commonly known as the V-2 rocket developed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s under the direction of Wernher von Braun. The first successful launch of a V-2 was on October 3, 1942, and it began operation on September 6, 1944 against Paris, followed by an attack on London two days later. By the end of World War II in May 1945, over 3,000 V-2s had been launched.

Defense

Defense or defence may refer to:

Tactics and strategy

Politics and economics

Concepts in law

Other uses

Missile

In modern usage, a missile is a self-propelled precision-guided munition system, as opposed to an unguided self-propelled munition, referred to as a rocket (although these too can also be guided). Missiles have four system components: targeting and/or missile guidance, flight system, engine, and warhead. Missiles come in types adapted for different purposes: surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles (ballistic, cruise, anti-ship, anti-tank, etc.), surface-to-air missiles (and anti-ballistic), air-to-air missiles, and anti-satellite weapons. All known existing missiles are designed to be propelled during powered flight by chemical reactions inside a rocket engine, jet engine, or other type of engine. Non-self-propelled airborne explosive devices are generally referred to as shells and usually have a shorter range than missiles.

In ordinary British-English usage predating guided weapons, a missile is "any thrown object", such as objects thrown at players by rowdy spectators at a sporting event.