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On February 9, 1959, the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile entered service for the Soviet Union. The country’s defence ministry’s index for it was 8K71. The missile part of it was called R-7. What was its launcher called? It could carry a thermonuclear warhead and had a range of up to 8,000 km. It also delivered the Sputnik satellite to orbit in October 1957.
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In the following list, identify the three countries that don’t have operational ICBMs and name two countries not in the list that do have them: Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the U.S.
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Name the military doctrine that is the foundation of nuclear peace – the idea that if two nuclear powers are armed with nuclear weapons and have both first- and second-strike capabilities, they don’t have an incentive to attack each other nor to disarm. Clue: Its name was chosen because its acronym was synonymous with the irrationality of developing nuclear weapons.
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Name the 1972 treaty under which the U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to not development anymore new ICBMs after the treaty date, unless an equal number of such missiles (land-based or sea-based) were dismantled first. The treaty took two years of negotiations and required significant effort from the then U.S. secretary of defence Robert McNamara.
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Agni V is India’s land-based ICBM and has a range of 7,000-10,000 km. Its next iteration is called Agni VI, which will also have an MIRV feature. MIRV missiles confuse anti-ballistic-missile protection systems by releasing multiple warheads, some of which may be dummies, with different targets. What does MIRV stand for?
