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Abstract: Ballistic threat is one of the most present and dangerous threats which require significant attention from both politicians and military leaders. Since its birth, this threat has been taken into account, and the military powers tried to identify systems, methods and procedures to counteract it. One of the most important aspects is to detect the ballistic missiles after the launch and to track them using radars and other means. This paper emphasizes some difficulties regarding the detection and tracking of the ballistic missiles due to critical flight time and print
Key words: ballistic missiles, ballistic threat, anti-ballistic missile, missile defense, early warning, radar
Ballistic missiles threat has became the most widely mentioned issue in the recent years, on the one hand, due to the reopening of the oldest rivalries between Russia and the United States of America, and, on the other hand, because of the emergence and development of new areas of economic, great scientific and technical potential which allow such weapons systems in countries that have not had access to them until now.
The outset of the ballistic threat dates back to the middle of the last century, when the two main opponents of The Cold War competed for acquiring the top place as owners of the most destructive force or, equally, the top position in deterrence.
After the first successful test of a Soviet antiballistic missile, in 19611, the United States, in order to respond to the ballistic threat, started to modify the Nike Hercules program, which aimed at the defense against strategic bombers.
However, there were many other states interested in developing anti-ballistic systems: China, France, India, Israel, Italy, and United Kingdom.
Studying public papers2, one can infer that the most significant results in this field of activity belong to:
- the US:
- GMD ( Ground Based Midcourse Defense) - at strategic level;
- THAAD ( Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) - at theatre level;
- MIM 104 PATRIOT - at tactical level.
- Soviet Union / Russia:
- A-35, replaced by A-135 - at strategic level;
- S-400 (SA-21 GROWLER) - at theatre level;
- S-300V (SA-12 GLADIATOR/GIANT) - at tactical level.
- China: the HQ-9 (Hong Qi-9) system, version HHQ-9 (Hai Hong Qi-9) for navy -...