The attack that was carried out this morning Russia about the city of Dnipro It has represented a new step in the escalation that is taking place this week in the invasion of Ukraine. On Sunday, the White House authorized for the first time the use of its ballistic missiles ATACMS against targets in Russian territory. The night from Monday to Tuesday, Ukraine used them for the first time against a military installation in the Russian border region of Bryansk. That same day, Putin announced the expansion of the Russian nuclear doctrine and, this morning, For the first time, Russia has used a intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It is not only the first time it has been used in this conflict, but the first time an army uses a ICBM in combat. Conceived for decades as weapons of deterrence, no one had dared to do so until now.
The Air Force Ukraine has reported the attack, which also included a Kinzhal hypersonic missile and seven cruise missiles Kh-101. Of all the missiles launched, Ukraine was able to intercept six Kh-101s, but has not revealed which ICBM was launched by Russia.
What is an ICBM
ICBMs are a type of ballistic missiles that It differs from others by its reach. A ballistic missile is defined by following a ballistic trajectory to deliver a warhead to a target. Unlike cruise missiles, which are powered throughout their flight, Ballistic missiles are only active during a relatively brief part of their trajectory.. Most of the missile’s flight is unpowered, following a path determined by gravity and air resistance.
The trajectory of a ballistic missile resembles that of an arc, reaching high altitudes before descending towards its target. In some cases, leave the earth’s atmosphere and then re-enter. They can carry a wide variety of warheadsincluding conventional explosives, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
Types of intercontinental ballistic missiles
Ballistic missiles can have ranges short, medium or intercontinental depending on their design and the distance they can cover. Intercontinental ballistic missiles are capable of hitting targets thousands of kilometers away. This category includes those with a range of 5,500 kilometers or greater.
The other types of ballistic missiles, depending on their range, are the IRBM (English acronym for Medium Range Ballistic Missile), those with a range between 1,000 and 5,500 kmand the SRBM (short range ballistic missile), used to attack targets at a distance of between 500 and 1,000 km.
Origin of intercontinental ballistic missiles
The origin of ballistic missiles is found in Second World Warwith the V-2 created by Wernher von Braun in Nazi Germany to bomb the United Kingdom. The V-2, with which hitler hoped to turn the conflict around when it entered service in 1944, it had a range of 320 kilometers.
After the Second World War came the arms race of the Cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The first American ICBM, with a range of 11,300 kmit was the HGM-25A Titan Iin 1959although it had had a precedent in the rocket Atlas of 1957used not as a weapon but to launch satellites and space probes.
The first Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile was the R-9 Desnaintroduced in 1961 and with a scope of between 12,000 and 16,000 km. Since then, dozens of models have been developed and are currently 6 the countries that have this type of weapons in their arsenal: the United States, Russia, China, North Korea, India and Israel.