Medium-range missile

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In German usage, medium-range missiles are military ballistic missiles with a range between 800 and 5500 km. They mainly serve as a means of delivery for nuclear weapons and are among the sub-strategic nuclear weapons. This assessment was carried out by the USA and the Soviet Union or Russia , because medium-range missiles pose a significantly lower threat to both countries due to their shorter range than ICBMs due to their geographic location.

According to the internationally accepted classification, two classes of ballistic missile fall into this area:

  • MRBMs (Medium Range Ballistic Missiles) for medium- range missiles with a medium range of 800 to 2399 km, previously 1000 to 2700 km
  • IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) for medium-range missiles with a longer range of 2400 to 5499 km, previously 2700 to 5500 km

These included the American Pershing II , the Soviet SS-20 and the French S2 and S3 . In connection with the NATO double-track decision were often (often called "retrofitting Decision") BGM-109 Tomahawk - cruise missiles assigned to the medium-range missiles, while not on ballistic flight paths and no rocket propulsion, but a jet engine have. That's why they're not missiles.

The Tomahawk, however, have similar ranges to medium-range missiles, short reaction times and high accuracy. At subsonic speeds , their approach time is significantly higher than that of medium-range missiles, which can reach multiple supersonic speeds. They were also stationed on German territory for a few years towards the end of the Cold War . The pair of terms “Pershing II and Cruise Missile ” had therefore been common in the Federal Republic of Germany since the early 1980s .

The 1987 INF Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the abolition of this category of nuclear weapons within the scope of NATO and the Warsaw Pact .

For a list of the international ballistic missile classifications, see: Surface-to-surface missiles .

Flight phases

  1. Start or boost phase - around 2 to 4 minutes (shorter with solid propulsion than with liquid propulsion). Take off with a steep launch angle (less air resistance), after 1 to 2 minutes deflection in the direction of flight. Height at the end of fire between about 50 and 200 km depending on the length of the flight path, at speeds around 5 km / s.
  2. Medium flight phase - about 5 to 15 minutes depending on the range . Almost suborbital flight in an almost elliptical orbit with an apogee of up to a few 100 km. During this phase, or at the beginning of the re-entry into the denser atmosphere, some missiles can eject multiple independent warheads and decoys .
  3. Re-entry phase - about 2 minutes, starting at an altitude of about 100 km. Impact at speeds between 1 and 3 km / s (up to 10,000 km / h).

MRBMs and their ranges

IRBMs

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Medium-range rocket  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pakistan conducts Shaheen II Test ( Memento from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  2. ↑ India successfully test-fires cruise missile 'Nirbhay' (English)
  3. ↑ Nirbhay will be backbone of 'cold-start,' say experts (English)
  4. ↑ Nirbhay test launched in October 2014 (English)
  5. ↑ http://www.aame.in/2012/11/nuclear-capable-agni-1-ballistic.html (English)
  6. ↑ South Korea's military to increase number of Hyunmoo missiles, says report ( Memento from July 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ DRDO plans early entry of Agni-4 into arsenal . Business Standard November 17, 2011, accessed September 7, 2013
  8. ↑ a b Ballistic Missiles of the World ( English ) MissileThreat. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  9. ↑ Sci-Tech / Science: India to test fire Agni-V by year-end (English) . In: The Hindu , June 3, 2011. Retrieved July 15, 2011. 
  10. ↑ India tests 3.000 km range missile in n-secret (English)
  11. ↑ India's Nuclear Triad Finally Coming of Age (English)
  12. ↑ Jericho 3 ( English ) Missile Threat. March 26, 2012. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved on September 12, 2012.
  13. ↑ http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/rl30427.pdf (PDF, 239 kB, English)