ICBM's

I have a few questions on ICBMs

How long do they take to reach other places?

Do they go into space and if so how do they get their warheads to hit where they are supposed to?

And How far away can you detect one, time wise?

read here:
new-mexico.asinah.net...
and here:
www.fas.org...
most info should be on this 2 pages, beside maybe how long they take to reach a place

For detection i found this page

www.skyrocket.de...://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_sdat/dsp-1.htm
guess the detection is asoon as a icbm is launched, if you follow the links below you see the new versions of the sats.


Wolve

[Edited on 14-5-2004 by wolve]

ICBM's are exactly like launching a satellite, except the satellite has an orbit which happens to intersect the Earth's surface.

It is about 25-30 minutes from an ICBM launch to target impact.

The principal military advantage of an ICBM is that they are exceedingly difficult to defend against.

On target, the warhead is coming down at something like 5 (theater ballistic missile) to 7 kilometers per SECOND.

This means they go from the top of the atmosphere to detonation in a couple of seconds, and they're coming in practically straight down.

This is also why ICBM terminal guidance is so difficult.

Do they need a heat shield for going back into the earth's atmosphere?

the warheads( on a peacekeeper missile) are protected by a shroud.


www.globalsecurity.org...

[Edited on 16-5-2004 by WindWalker]

Nominal flight time for an Accurate ICBM is maybe 30-40 minutes from Russia to the US - Less for an cheap one (why? Read on).

To be very accurate ICBM's use very steep reentry angles. None to date use terminal guidance (GPS, whatever).

A US Minuteman III reaches a height of about 700 miles. Pretty high when you consider a low earth orbit is about 80 Miles. It could easily put the warhead into orbit (with major software/guidance upgrades) - but would then have very poor accuracy (and be illegal too!)

The RV's are subject to very high heating and deceleration (from the atmosphere). They are convered by an ablative material that burns away as it is heated (hence the traces in the sky during ICBM re-entry tests). They also experience deceleration in excess of 150 g's. Pretty impressive stuff.

BTW - The shroud only protects them in the hole and on the way up, it is jettisoned as soon the missile leaves the atmosphere.

Would you happen to know when you can detect one?

When it comes to radar's line of sight.

That's why there are these nice, small radars:

www.globalsecurity.org...
www.globalsecurity.org...

And there are satellites which monitor earth and search IR signs of rocket booster launches.

They go all the way into the atmosphere. Then stop there go down and hit their target.

The US/UK has two primary ways to detect ICBM's. The first is DSP/SBIRS, which detects the IR traces of boosters (and re-entry as well). This happens virtually instantly.

Several minutes later the missiles will eneter the line of site of one of our large radar systems (PAVE PAWS/BMEWS).

Once an attack is confirmed by both systems, it is considered to be 100% real. (And BTW - The Cobra Dane Radar is not part of our early warning network)