Russia launched an intercontinental missile: understand military technology

The Ukrainian government claims that: Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile towards Kiev this Thursday morning (21). This action would be unprecedented, considering that intercontinental missiles have a range of thousands of kilometers and are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

There are not many details about which missile was used, but it is possible to guess more details about such weapons and their technologies.

Intercontinental missiles are powerful, and the name itself makes it clear: They are capable of “flying over” entire countries to reach a target. Known by the acronym ICBM, these missiles have a minimum range of 5,500 kilometers (some exceed 9,000 kilometers) and are designed to carry one or more nuclear warheads, but they can also carry conventional, biological or chemical weapons.

According to the statement made by the Air and Space Power Center in Australia, ICBMs have three flight phases. To follow:

Reinforcement phase: 3 to 5 minutes; shorter for a solid-fuel rocket than for a liquid-fuel rocket; Typical extinction speed is 4 km/s (2.5 mi/s), up to 7.8 km/s (4.8 mi/s), depending on the chosen orbit; The altitude at the end of this phase is typically 150 to 400 km (93 to 249 mi).

Intermediate stage: about 25 minutes; suborbital spaceflight with a flight path forming part of an ellipse with a vertical major axis; The missile can release multiple independent warheads and penetration aids such as metal-coated balloons, aluminum chaff, and large-scale warhead decoys.

Re-entry/terminal phase (starting at 100 km, 62 mi altitude): 2 minutes; collision occurs at speeds up to 7 km/h (4.3 mph)

Missiles launched from silos or mobile launch vehicles can be powered by solid or liquid fuel. It is worth noting that solid-fuel ICBMs are more dangerous because they are launched faster.

Countries that currently have intercontinental ballistic missiles are: Russia, USA, China, France, India, UK and North Korea.