Ballistic missiles are short-, medium-, and long-range rocket-propelled vehicles that deliver nuclear or conventional weapons. RAND's analyses help policymakers understand the potential uses of ballistic missiles for warfare and terrorism, the likelihood of their use by combatants, possible defense strategies, and emerging threats to the global security environment.
In an international crisis, the United States must balance its threats with restraint while limiting its vulnerability. A RAND study sought to identify which long-range strike assets offer capabilities most conducive to stabilizing such crises.
This report presents an analysis of historical use of air-to-ground attacks to assess the economic wisdom of relying primarily on expendable weapons, such as cruise missiles.
Report assesses whether the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty continues to serve America's national interests, or whether adherence unduly constrains the U.S. ability to effectively respond to emerging security threats.
Questions the current common view of the North Korean missile program and seeks to better characterize the North Korean missile threat by comparing the available data on the North Korea missile program against several possible hypotheses.
A new book by the late French scholar Thérèse Delpech provides a critical review and update of nuclear deterrence theory, focusing a critical eye on nuclear issues during the Cold War, examining the lessons of past nuclear crises, and outlining ways in which these lessons apply to major nuclear powers and nuclear pretenders today.
Classic work from 1959 that discusses the origins of air power, its cornerstone position in the evolution of Cold War era nuclear strategy, and its treatment of preventive and preemptive attacks, deterrence, and the economics of strategy.
Addresses the post-Cold War use of traditional U.S. strategic nuclear forces (nuclear-armed long-range bombers, ICBMs, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles) from three perspectives: top-down, bottom-up, and policy.
Calculating the utility of attacks against ballistic missile transporter-erector-launchers (TELs) associated with the proliferation of theater ballistic missiles (TBMs) can play a role in sharply reducing the prospective threat size.
One potential justification for a thin area missile defense is the increasing proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. However, it has been argued that states possessing such weapons would not attack much stronger states s...
Addresses the proliferation of ballistic missiles with conventional warheads, including chemical warheads.
The proliferation of ballistic missiles poses a worldwide threat. The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) was created in 1987 to help control the spread of delivery system technology by means of parallel export restrictions among signatory membe...
This Note describes in mathematical terms the dynamic geometry between a constellation of satellites deployed for ballistic missile defense (BMD) and the missiles the satellites are engaging.
The launching of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative raises defense strategy issues surrounding the capabilities of antitactical ballistic missiles (ATBMs) and the U.S.-Soviet antiballistic missile treaty of 1972. This paper explores potential poli...
This paper reviews the capabilities of Soviet tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs) and considers passive defense measures such as hardening, redundancy, dispersal, and mobility, that NATO might use against them.
An outline of decisions concerning ballistic missiles from the reaction to the German use of guided missiles in the closing months of World War II in Europe through the enunciation of a new set of national strategic principles during the U.S. ...
A discussion of the techniques of cost sensitivity analysis, illustrated by a hypothetical investigation of a system designed to protect the United States against submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
A game analysis of the deployment of a defense system against submarine-launched ballistic missiles composed of mobile defense units capable of destroying a nearby submarine and its missiles at the time of launch.
A consideration of the problem of making design decisions for time-limited checkouts of ballistic missiles. The paper develops (1) a quantitative criteria for the value of including individual checks in the checkout, (2) an expression for the require...
An attempt to estimate the effect of three launch variables (namely, velocity, path angle, and altitude) on the performance of air-launched ballistic missiles.
A study of the defensive application of infrared-optical techniques for detecting an intercontinental ballistic missile during its take-off, mid-course flight, and re-entry.
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