Weapons

Missiles, they are everywhere. Everyone wants to have a powerful missile to protect them from everyone else. When you think about it rationally, it really does sound crazy. Each missile has the power to kill thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of people with its nuclear warhead. It is the same old story, if one country has them, everyone else feels that they must too. This is truly a case where abstinence is the better way to go. The more of these things that are around, the more of a chance one will get launched. It was bad enough when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were armed to the teeth with these things, but now as we all know, some tin pot dictators are getting them too. Sometimes they develop them on their own and other times they are sold them by greedy arms dealers and governments that really don't care about the state of the world.

Russian R-36 Missile Launch
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Russia has been testing new rockets that are designed to break through U.S. anti-ballistic defenses. They claim that the reason that they are doing this is because we are putting our anti-ballistic missiles in Europe against their wishes. We have an agreement with Poland to put them close to the Russian border. The RT-2UTTH Topol-M Is a new advanced Russian missile. It is said to compare favorably to the American Minuteman-3. It has a single warhead. It has a range of 6,900 miles. It will be put into silos and also used on mobile launchers. They are developing another missile called the RS-24. It is behind schedule right now, but it is just about ready for production. This is a multiple warhead missile. As a matter of fact, Russia has threatened to station these missiles, if we put the missiles in Poland that we said we were going to.

Minuteman 3 Launch
Photo Source: USAF

America itself is no slouch in the area of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. is said to have at least 500 Minuteman 3 missiles deployed at four bases in the north and central United States. Those bases are Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, Malmstrom AFB, Montana, and F. E. Warren AFB, Wyoming. The missiles are capable of Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicles or MIRV. They currently are believed to contain only one warhead, due to treaty agreements. The system as been continuously upgraded to meet any conceivable threat. The Department of Defense has an ongoing program to replace aging parts in the missiles to keep them fire ready. The U.S. has stated that they have permanently DEMIRVED the missiles. The missiles are expected to remain this nation's main defense through 2020. As with Russia, the United States maintains a large submarine fleet that contains hundreds of Trident missiles and surface ships that contain thousands of stealth cruise missiles. As in Russia, there are the bombers that contain thousand of missiles and nuclear bombs.

China claims that it possesses the smallest nuclear arsenal among the five major nuclear countries and does not possess either biological or toxin weapons. They ratified the Biological and Toxin Weapons convention in 1984 and the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997. When it did this, it claimed that it destroyed all of these types of weapons. China released a document stating that it would never authorize the first use of nuclear weapons. China's rocket force can only be estimated, but it is believed that China's main ICBM is the DF-5A, also known as the CSS-4 ICBM. It has a range of about 7,800 miles. The estimate is that the Chinese possess about 20 of these rockets. Each warhead is estimated at about 5 megatons. There is also a submarine launched missile called the JL-2 that is said to have a range of about 5,100 miles and is capable of multiple targeted warheads. No one is sure of the power of each warhead and some have put it at an upper limit of about 1,000 kt. Arguments rage on this missiles capability of carrying MIRVS or not.

Britain has never maintained an ICBM, but in practical terms there is no need. If they were attacked with a nuclear weapon we would retaliate since we maintain forces in that country and an attack on them would be an attack on us. They do have however nuclear submarines with American Trident Missiles. The most recent count is that Britain has 58 of these missiles.

Pluton Short Range Missile
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France has its own nuclear force. The French missile force is aging. France is very worried about the emergence of so many different countries testing missiles and the American plan to put up a missile shield. According to the Brookings Institute, France worries that its missile force may not be a deterrent someday. This has led to France testing a new ICBM called the M51. It has a range of about 4,000 miles, which is twice as far as the missile it would replace. It will be able to hold six nuclear warheads. The first test of the missile was in November of 2006. The missile is expected to enter service in 2010. The missile will also be manufactured in a form for submarine launch. The submarine version is to have a range of 6,200 miles and carry the new Oceanic nuclear warhead.

India is said to have the Surya-1/Agni-IV in development, this is an ICBM with a range up to 4,000 miles. The payload is unknown at this time. They are also developing a Surya-2 and a Surya-3. The Surya-2 is said to have a range of 7.200 miles and the Surya-3 a range of over 12,000 miles. One has to wonder why India feels that it needs a missile with such a great range. By the way the distance between Bombay and New York is about 8020 miles

Pakistan has no ICBMs yet but has several intermediate range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Their missiles are designed for strikes at India if necessary.

North Korea has proven that it possesses the Toep'o-dong 2 or NKSL-X-2. The range is estimated at about 2,600 miles, about 900 miles short of the range of an ICBM. What is confusing to the west is the fact that North Korea has used several different names for the same missile. Perhaps they were trying to get us to think that they had many other missiles. They have been known to use these things as bargaining chips to get things that they want. It is said that Kim Jong II said, “If we can develop this we have nothing to fear. Even the American Bastards won't be able to bother us. Whether we live or die, we must quickly develop the Hwasong-6."

It was said that Iran had no ICBMs, although they have recently demonstrated that they had a missile capable of launching a satellite. This missile may only have a range of 1,200 miles, but it is hard to be sure.