What is anti-ballistic missile?
Everyone knows what a ballistic missile is, right? Okay, I see some confused faces out there, so apparently a few of you don’t, and it’s easier to know what an anti-ballistic missile is if you first know what a ballistic missile is, so here’s the lowdown: a ballistic missile is a projectile (in this case, a missile, for those too thick to figure that out) that, following a self-propelled ascent, free-falls back to Earth. This means it goes up at an angle and coasts down along a similar but descending angle, forming something of a parabola, which makes its path ballistic (by definition, something that relates to the path of a projectile after the loss of propulsion, relying on momentum, gravity and friction to determine its course).
You’ve all heard of ICBMs… right? Well, if you’re under 25 years old, maybe you didn’t pay attention in history class and have been too busy listening to Green Day, Tourniquet and Korn to be familiar with the acronym. Those of us over 35 know it all too well, because we spent large portions of our childhoods hiding under our school desks during useless “duck and cover” drills out of constant fear that the Soviet Union (that’s what Russia used to be before they got soft, for all of you youngsters) would rain nuclear missiles down on us. ICBM stands for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, which is just your everyday ballistic missile with enough range to carry it over one of Earth’s larger oceans, say from Russia to San Francisco.
These days, the biggest fear of ballistic missiles concerns Iran and their missile and nuclear programs. The missiles developed by the Iranians (with considerable help from some of America’s dear friends, like China) can’t cross the Atlantic Ocean (not yet, at least), but they can go way up, and coast their way down into Israel or much of Europe. This is just one of the reasons why allowing Iran to develop nukes is a bad idea.
An anti-ballistic missile is an interceptor, as opposed to a ballistic missile. These are designed not to run out of fuel, but instead to accelerate the entire way toward their target. Understandably, the target of such missiles is a ballistic missile. Once the ballistic missile begins its free-fall, it is all but incapable of maneuvering, and is therefore vulnerable to interceptor missiles. A ballistic missile is, however, a rather small and very fast-moving target for any interceptor, which is what makes the anti-ballistic missile special, for it has extremely sensitive guidance systems, a built in radar and onboard computer system that allows it to alter its course in flight so it can strike its target with great accuracy. The Patriot Missile is an interceptor missile, though not an anti-ballistic missile as it was designed to destroy other constantly propelled missiles, like the Scud.
The so-called Star Wars program (or, more accurately, SDI: the Strategic Defense Initiative) proposed by Ronald Reagan would have provided the Free World with an orbital anti-ballistic defense shield. Unfortunately, widespread misunderstanding of the program (mostly protestors screaming that it was wrong to place nukes into orbit, which was never a part of the plan) caused its demise before it could be realized.
America’s desire to place such missiles in Eastern Europe to thwart any attacks on Europe by Iran was hotly contested by the still-paranoid Russian government. Because Russia is (supposedly) our friend now, we don’t want to ruffle any feathers, and therefore the defense net has yet to be built. Instead, we have to harbor such defensive weapons on naval ships and hope to God that if anyone fires an ICBM at us or any of America’s many real friends, they’ll be in a position to shoot the sucker down.
