Intercontinental ballistic missile

A trident missile, launched from a submarine

ICBM is an acronym. It stands for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.^[1] It is a missile that can travel so far that it be used from one continent to another. The missile is primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery. The missile is guided, which means it can be controlled to hit a target, usually by an inertial guidance system. The missile carries a warhead, which is usually a nuclear weapon but it can also be a chemical or biological weapon. ICBMs can be launched from silos in the ground or underwater from submarines. Some can be launched from large ground vehicles.

Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Media

A US Peacekeeper missile launched from a silo
Minuteman III launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, United States of America on 9 February 2023.
Primary views of an R-7 Semyorka, the world's first ICBM and satellite launch vehicle
An SM-65 Atlas, the first US ICBM, first launched in 1957
1965 graph of USAF Atlas and Titan ICBM launches, cumulative by month with failures highlighted (pink), showing how NASA's use of ICBM boosters for Projects Mercury and Gemini (blue) served as a visible demonstration of reliability at a time when failure rates had been substantial.
Deployment history of land-based ICBM, 1959–2014
Schematic view of a submarine-launched Trident II D5 nuclear missile system, capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads up to 8,000 km (5,000 mi)
ICBMs can be deployed from transporter erector launchers (TEL), such as the Russian RT-2PM2 Topol-M
Artist's concept of an SS-24 deployed on railway
A US Peacekeeper missile launched from a silo