{"id":21631,"date":"2024-03-18T02:24:21","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T20:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=21631"},"modified":"2025-04-06T13:32:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T08:02:50","slug":"ballistic-missiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ballistic-missiles\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Ballistic Missiles?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Ballistic Missiles<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A ballistic missile is a\u00a0rocket-propelled,\u00a0self-guided strategic-weapons system that\u00a0follows\u00a0a\u00a0ballistic trajectory to deliver a payload from its launch site to a predetermined target.<\/li>\n<li>They are\u00a0powered initially by a rocket or series of rockets in stages, but\u00a0then follow an\u00a0unpowered trajectory that\u00a0arches upwards before descending to reach its intended target.<\/li>\n<li>They can\u00a0carry conventional high explosives\u00a0as well as chemical, biological, or nuclear munitions.<\/li>\n<li>They can be\u00a0launched from aircraft, ships, and submarines,\u00a0in addition to land-based\u00a0silos and mobile platforms.<\/li>\n<li>There are\u00a0four general classifications of ballistic missiles based on their range, or the maximum distance the missile can travel:\n<ul>\n<li>Short-range:\u00a0less than 1,000 kilometers (approximately 620 miles), also known as \u201ctactical\u201d ballistic missiles.<\/li>\n<li>Medium-range:\u00a0between 1,000 and 3,000 kilometers (approximately 620-1,860 miles), also known as \u201ctheater\u201d ballistic missiles.<\/li>\n<li>Intermediate-range:\u00a0between 3,000 and 5,500 kilometers (approximately 1,860-3,410 miles)<\/li>\n<li>Long-range:\u00a0more than 5,500 kilometers (approximately 3,410 miles), also known as\u00a0intercontinental or strategic ballistic missiles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Short- and medium-range ballistic missiles are\u00a0referred to as theater ballistic missiles, whereas\u00a0ICBMs, or long-range\u00a0ballistic missiles, are\u00a0described as strategic ballistic missiles.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is a Cruise Missile?<\/h3>\n<p>Cruise missiles are unmanned vehicles that are propelled by jet engines, much like an airplane. They can be launched from ground, air, or sea platforms. Cruise missiles remain within the atmosphere for the duration of their flight and can fly as low as a few meters off the ground. Flying low to the surface of the earth expends more fuel but makes a cruise missile very difficult to detect.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/3\/18\/north-korea-fires-ballistic-missiles-as-blinken-visits-seoul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>North Korea fires ballistic missiles as Blinken visits Seoul<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A ballistic missile is a rocket-propelled, self-guided strategic-weapons system that follows a ballistic trajectory to deliver a payload from its launch site to a predetermined target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}