Intercontinental Ballistic Missile ICBM

Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)

 

a strategical guided ballistic missile of the ground-to-ground class.

The range of the ICBM is in excess of 10,000 km. Intercontinental ballistic missiles are designed for the purpose of destroying targets located at a great distance on faraway continents; all such missiles are of a multistage design. Launch weight exceeds 30 tons, and the pay load is more than 1 ton. In the USA, intercontinental ballistic missiles have been used as launchers to put space vehicles into orbit. For instance, the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft were launched with the aid of Atlas and Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles.