I have just asked these questions in the Pentagon, in the White House, in offices of key scientists across the country and aboard the submarines that prowl for months underwater, with neat rows of green launch tubes which contain Polaris missiles and which are affectionately known as `` Sherwood Forest ''.

Its radar screens would register Soviet missiles shortly after they are launched against the United States.

Notable in this category are the Jupiter and Thor intermediate range ballistic missiles, which have been successfully developed, produced, and deployed, but the relative importance of which has diminished with the increasing availability of the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile.

Because of this, it would appear inevitable that an increasing percentage of strategic missiles will seek self-protection in mobility -- at least until missile defenses are perfected which have an exceedingly high kill probability.

* 2007 – 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident: six US cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base.

The level of armour protection between AFVs varies greatly-a main battle tank will normally be designed to take hits from other tank guns and anti-tank missiles, whilst light reconnaissance vehicles are often only armoured " just in case ".

But there are still dedicated anti-tank vehicles with very heavy long-range missiles, and ones intended for airborne use.

Both the F-14 Tomcat and AIM-54 Phoenix missile continue in the service of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, although the operational abilities of these aircraft and the missiles are questionable, since the US refused to supply spare parts and maintenance after the 1979 revolution ; except for a brief period during the Iran-Contra Affair.

Most Spruance-class destroyers were later modified to include the Mk 41 VLS, these launchers are capable of carrying a mixture of the VL-ASROC, the Tomahawk TLAM, and other missiles.

Indirect combat through the use of aircraft and missiles now comprise of a large portion of wars in place of battles, where battles are now mostly reserved for capturing cities.

Although the Bizerte ( Type PR 48 large patrol craft ) class L ' Audacieux is fitted for SS 12M missiles these are not embarked and its operational status is in some doubt, having not been reported at sea since 1995.

Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy.

Modern cruise missiles can travel at supersonic or high subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and can fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low altitude trajectory.

Russia has Kh-55SM cruise missiles, with similar to US AGM-129 range of 3000 km, but are able to carry more powerful warhead of 200 kt.

Approximately 60 nuclear missiles are in service, 50 land based and 10 sea based.

Currently cruise missiles are among the most expensive of single-use weapons, up to several million dollars apiece.

As demonstrated in Operation Odyssey Dawn and prior conflicts, cruise missiles are much more difficult to detect and intercept than other aerial assets, suiting them to attacks against static air defense systems.

Most modern cannon are similar to those used in the Second World War, although the importance of the larger caliber weapons has declined with the development of missiles.

Opponents argue that CVBGs are increasingly vulnerable to arsenal ships and cruise missiles, especially those with supersonic flight and the ability to perform radical trajectory changes to avoid anti-missile systems.

Modern destroyers, also known as guided missile destroyers, are equivalent in tonnage but vastly superior in firepower to cruisers of the World War II era, capable of carrying nuclear missiles.

Guided missile destroyers such as the Arleigh Burke class are actually larger and more heavily armed than most previous ships classified as guided missile cruisers, due to their massive size at long, displacement ( 9200 tons ) and armament of over 90 missiles.

This excludes liquids or gels which are spontaneously flammable when exposed to water or the atmosphere, which belong in group H. Examples include liquid or gel filled incendiary ammunition, fuel-air explosive ( FAE ) devices, and flammable liquid fueled missiles.

Air-to-air missiles largely replaced guns and rockets in the early 1960s since both were believed unusable at the speeds being attained, however the Vietnam War showed that guns still had a role to play and most fighters built since then are fitted with cannon ( typically between 20 and 30 mm in caliber ) as an adjunct to missiles.

Fins are also seen used as e. g., fletching on arrows and at the rear of some bombs, missiles, rockets, and self-propelled torpedoes.

But when Paul Nitze, the American negotiator, suggested a compromise plan for nuclear missiles in Europe in the celebrated " walk in the woods " with Soviet negotiator Yuli Kvitsinsky, the Soviets never responded.

The crisis ended in a compromise, with the Soviets removing their missiles publicly, and the United States secretly removing its nuclear missiles in Turkey.

In October 1999 a compromise was reached that saw Russia pay US $ 285m for 11 aircraft and 575 missiles, whilst the rest were meant to be destroyed under a US-funded disarmament programme.

Fiedler went on to make several other test flights before German pilots took over the Reichenberg missiles.

A full load of 6 Phoenix missiles and the unique launch rails weigh in at over, about twice the weight of Sparrows, so it was more common to carry a mixed load of 4 Phoenix, 2 Sparrow and 2 Sidewinder missiles.

Blue Steel required up to seven hours of launch preparation, and was highly unreliable ; the Royal Air Force estimated in 1963 that half the missiles would fail to fire and would have to be dropped over their targets, contradicting their purpose of serving as standoff weapons.

Khrushchev believed that if the Americans did nothing over the missile deployments in Cuba, he could muscle the West out of Berlin using said missiles as a deterrent to western counter-measures in Berlin.

As well as attempting to breach the walls, incendiary missiles could be thrown inside — or early biological warfare attempted with diseased carcasses or putrid garbage catapulted over the walls.

Further deterioration occurred as a result of the Sept. 1, 1983 Soviet shoot down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Moneron Island carrying 269 people including a sitting US congressman, Larry McDonald, and over Reagan's stationing of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe.

In 2003, Morris won the Best Documentary Oscar at the Academy Awards, for his film The Fog of War, about the career of Robert S. McNamara, who was famous for having been the Secretary of Defense who had led the nation into the Vietnam War under Presidents John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and who was also crucially involved in having helped President Kennedy avoid a Third World War over the issue of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

The United States and United Kingdom launched attacks on over 20 " integrated air defense systems " using more than 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles during operations Odyssey Dawn and Ellamy.

Early reports estimated that $ 6 – 20 billion had been spent by the U. S. and Saudi Arabia but more recent reports state that the U. S. and Saudi Arabia provided as much as up to $ 40 billion in cash and weapons, which included over two thousand FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, for building up Islamic groups against the Soviet Union.

But more recently the concern has been over the spread of chemical weapons and ballistic missiles.

* 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U. S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane and its pilot fly over the island of Cuba and take photographs of Soviet missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads being installed and erected in Cuba.

At the same time, tensions with the United States heightened when the two rivals clashed over the deployment of the U. S. Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles in Cuba.

It is generally suited for heavier missiles and siege situations as staff slings can achieve very steep trajectories for slinging over obstacles such as castle walls.

The introduction of useful surface-to-air missiles in the 1950s rendered flight over enemy territory much more dangerous.

Yet the Air Force and military planners were, in the mid-1950s, reluctant to simply hand over the nuclear strike capability to missiles, which after launch were no longer under positive control, could not be recalled or redirected, and would reach their targets within a matter of minutes after the order to fire.

Fixed land based ballistic missile sites need many thousands of acres per squadron ( typically ten missiles ); and the squadrons need to be apportioned over many thousands of square miles, so that no single attack could conceivably destroy them all in one strike.

The introduction of MIRV systems dramatically upset this in the favour of the attack ; missiles now carried several warheads that would be dispersed over wide areas, so now every new ICBM built would require a small fleet of ABMs to counter it.

Torpedo boats also evolved over time, notably with the addition of guided missiles.

In the last days of 2011, during a war scare with Iran over the Straits of Hormuz, the UAE announced a purchase of 3. 48 $ billion US worth of American missile systems: 2 radar systems, 96 missiles, spare parts and training.

While fire and forget missiles have definitive advantages in terms of guidance and operator safety, and include abilities such as top attack mode, older missiles continue in use, both in the front line armies of less developed countries, and in reserve service the world over, due to their lower cost or existing stockpiles of less advanced weapons.