Modern ICBMs

MODERN ICBM'S

Today's ICBMs reportedly can strike within a few hundred feet of their targets after traveling thousands of miles through space. Such accuracy makes it possible to use a less powerful warhead, yet still be assured of destroying a target. A single missile can also carry multiple warheads, each aimed at a different target. A Minuteman III could have 3 nuclear warheads, as shown here; the Peacekeeper MX had 10.

Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory

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CN80-4964 Los Alamos

MISSILE THREAT

By the 1970s multiple warheads and improved missile accuracy caused growing concern about a "first strike" that would destroy one side's missiles and bombers before they could be used to strike back. Both sides feared that a crisis might escalate into such a decisive attack. This threat caused a huge growth in the number of Soviet and American missiles and later led to arms limitation treaties. With the end of the Cold War, single warheads are replacing multiple ones, and nuclear arsenals are being reduced.

Line Art of missile sizes, both US and USSR

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Two intermediate-range nuclear missiles--a Soviet SS-20 and a U.S. Pershing II--now banned by treaty are displayed in the Milestones of Flight hall in the center of the Museum.

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The Chip			Racing to the Moon
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