There are only two systems in the world that can intercept ICBMs.

It was understood that both ICBMs and SLBMs are obviously " strategic ".

Additionally, ICBMs are generally considered to be nuclear only ; although several conceptual designs of conventionally armed missiles have been considered, the launch of such a weapon would be such a threat that it would demand a nuclear response, eliminating any military value of such a weapon.

, all five of the nations with permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council have operational long-range ballistic missile systems: all have submarine-launched missiles, and Russia, the United States and China also have land-based ICBMs ( the US ' missiles are silo-based, China and Russia have both silo and road-mobile missiles ).

Russia, the United States and China are the only countries currently known to possess land-based ICBMs.

Since the energy ultimately comes from fuel, these considerations mean that rockets are mainly useful when a very high speed is required, such as ICBMs or orbital launch.

" Another airman receives a report that over 300 Soviet ICBMs are inbound.

It is because of explosive hazard that the higher energy military solid propellants containing HMX are not used in commercial launch vehicles except when the LV is an adapted ballistic missile already containing HMX propellant ( Minotaur IV and V based on the retired Peacekeeper ICBMs ).

The flight phases are like those for ICBMs, except with no exoatmospheric phase for missiles with ranges less than about 350 km.

MIRVed land-based ICBMs are considered destabilizing because they tend to put a premium on striking first.

Modern submarine-launched ballistic missiles are closely related to intercontinental ballistic missiles, and in many cases SLBMs and ICBMs may be part of the same family of weapons.

Instead of another party confirming a missile launch as in the case of land-based ICBMs, the set of keys is distributed among the key personnel on the submarine and are kept in safes ( each of these crew members has access only to his keys ), some of which are locked by combination locks.

The use of ICBMs and SLBMs is not, therefore, a rational or credible response to provocations which, although serious, are still less than an immediate threat to national survival.

Although they are preferred in space launchers, the difficulties of storing a cryogen like liquid oxygen in a missile that had to be kept launch ready for months or years at a time led to a switch to hypergolic propellants in the US Titan II and in most Soviet ICBMs such as the R-36.

For a defense system, decoys and chaff for ICBMs would mainly work in mid-course: during the boost phase they would be inside the rocket, because separate rockets for each of many decoys would not be practical, while at atmospheric reentry light decoys and chaff considerably slow down and / or are destroyed in the atmosphere.

The Strategic Missile Troops or Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or RVSN RF are a military branch of the Russian Military that controls Russia's land-based ICBMs.

MIRVed land-based ICBMs are considered destabilizing because they tend to put a premium on striking first.

At a missile base in Chelyabinsk, Russia, SS-18 ICBMs are being decommissioned.

While a few long-range weapons — such as the intercontinental ballistic missiles ( ICBMs ) and certain types of cruise missiles — are capable of projecting deadly force in their own right, most discussion of power projection revolve around issues of military logistics.

Developed during the Cold War, ICBMs are large missiles, almost invariably fitted with nuclear warheads, designed to be launched from their home country and reach targets around the globe, leaving no corner safe from attack and retaliation in the case of a nuclear war.

ICBMs are safe in their underground silos while on the ground, but were less accurate than bombers and could not be called back when launched.

Countermeasures are a complicating factor in the development of anti-ballistic missile defense systems targeting ICBMs.

Graham Allison, the director of Harvard University ’ s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, points out, “ The Soviet Union could right the nuclear imbalance by deploying new ICBMs on its own soil.

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.

The accuracy of these systems was fairly poor, but post-war development by most military forces improved the basic inertial platform concept to the point where it could be used as the guidance system on ICBMs flying thousands of kilometers.

* Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty II ( START II )— signed 1993, never put into force: START II was a bilateral agreement between the US and Russia which attempted to commit each side to deploy no more than 3, 000 to 3, 500 warheads by December 2007 and also included a prohibition against deploying multiple independent reentry vehicles ( MIRVs ) on intercontinental ballistic missiles ( ICBMs )

Older B-52B, B-52C, B-52E and B-52F aircraft were retired, along with the B-58A, leaving SAC with an offensive force of several hundred B-52D, B-52G, B-52H and FB-111A strike aircraft, augmented by 1, 054 Titan II, Minuteman II and Minuteman III ICBMs.

A game inspired by the film called Computer War, in which the player must track and shoot down ICBMs as well as crack a computer code, was released for the TI-99 / 4A and Commodore VIC-20.

The use of this tactic was reduced however, by the high logistic difficulty of keeping enough planes active at all times, and the increasing priority given to ICBMs over bombers ( which might be shot down by air defenses before reaching their targets ).

Japan Ministry of Defense's analyst Takesada points out that North Korea's desire of unification is similar to North Vietnam, and warns of the possibility of North Korea's compulsory merger with South Korea by threats of nuclear weapons, taking advantage of any possible decrease in the US military presence in South Korea, after North Korea deploys several hundred mobile ICBMs aimed at the US.

A 2012 display of missiles purporting to be ICBMs were declared fakes by Western analysts, and indicated North Korea was a long way from having a credible ICBM.

The oprational lifetime, however of the Titan I was short, as Secretary of Defense McNamara announced in November 1964 that all remaining first-generation ICBMs ( Series E and F Atlas and Titan I ) would be phased out ( Project Added Effort ) by the end of June 1965.

With the launch of Sputnik 1 & 2 the previous concern, of the right of satellite overflight, had become moot: those satellites were launched by an early version of the Soviet R-7 rocket, the basis of the USSR's early ICBMs, and definitely military, as well as roughly 40 times larger than the Vanguard launcher.

In July 1962, SAC had effectively rendered it obsolete by activating the 66th Strategic Missile Squadron, the first of three such units slated to operate 150 LGM-30B Minuteman I ICBMs under the 44 SMW.

Ellsworth soon became known as one of " The Showplaces of SAC " along with Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota as it continued to fight the Cold War by maintaining two legs of America's strategic triad: strategic bombardment and ICBMs.

* In addition, after the removal of 54 Titan IIs from alert status as ICBMs in the mid-1980s, about 50 of them were used as satellite launchers by the U. S. Air Force.

During the late 1970s, the Soviet Union fielded a large number of heavy ( defined by throw weight ), increasingly accurate MIRV ICBMs like the SS-18.

* The decision by President John F. Kennedy, who campaigned in 1960 on closing the " missile gap ", to deploy 1, 000 Minuteman missiles, far more ICBMs than the Soviets had at the time.

The radar, developed by Raytheon, is used primarily to detect and track sea-launched ( SLBM ) and intercontinental ballistic missiles ( ICBMs ).

Chaired by John von Neumann, its purpose was to study the development of ballistic missiles, including ICBMs.

At the same time, the need for a high-performance anti-aircraft weapon was also seriously eroded by the obvious evolution of the Soviet nuclear force to one based almost entirely on ICBMs.

On the following day, Russia responded by withdrawing from START II treaty ( intended to ban MIRV ICBMs ).

The SM-3 missile may have some capability against ICBMs, as demonstrated by the 2008 satellite shootdown.

* The movie WarGames introduces the wider public to the phenomenon of hacking and creates a degree of mass paranoia of hackers and their supposed abilities to bring the world to a screeching halt by launching nuclear ICBMs.