Missile defense

Missile defense

Measures designed to detect, identify, track, and defeat attacking (ballistic) missiles in both strategic and theater tactical roles, during any portion of their flight trajectory (boost, post-boost, midcourse, or terminal) or to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of such attack.

Industry: Military

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Missile defense

joint doctrine

Military; Missile defense

Fundamental principles that guide the employment of forces of two or more Services in coordinated action toward a common objective. It will be promulgated by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of ...

laddering down

Military; Missile defense

A hypothetical technique for overcoming a terminal phase missile defense. Successive salvos of salvage-fused RVs attack. The detonations of one salvo disable local ABM abilities so that following ...

Nitze criteria

Military; Missile defense

A reference to Paul Nitze, the Reagan Administration’s chief arms control negotiator, and his vocalization of the goal of the SDS as the achievement of raising the attack price where the defense cost ...

ablative shock

Military; Missile defense

A mechanical shock wave at the surface of an object exposed to intense pulsed electromagnetic radiation. A thin layer of the object's surface violently and rapidly boils off; the resulting vapor ...

thermal X-rays

Military; Missile defense

The electromagnetic radiation, mainly in the soft (low energy) x-ray region, emitted by the nuclear weapon residue by virtue of its extremely high temperature; it also is referred to as the primary ...