– see Missile Defense

The readiness level of a weapon or weapons system. Throughout the Cold War, US and Soviet nuclear forces were maintained on high alert, a policy that has changed little to this day. Air Based Laser

Weapons capable of destroying satellites. These can be based on earth or in outer space, and may be explosive tipped missiles, directed energy weapons (such as lasers), or kinetic kill vehicles, which [..]

– see Anti-Satellite Weapons

Countering an adversary’s strengths by focusing on its weaknesses. This allows a weaker opponent to level the playing field by using unorthodox means, such as the use of chemical weapons. Pentagon pla [..]

Uranium

The bomb dropped on Nagasaki (“Fat Man”) utilized the fission of plutonium, created by detonating an explosive around a ring of pie-shaped masses of plutonium, driving them to collide simultaneously i [..]

Also called hydrogen bombs, these are much more powerful than fission weapons. They use a smaller fission reaction to drive a more powerful fusion reaction that merges hydrogen nuclei to form helium.

A rocket-powered delivery vehicle that has some form of guidance system, and that travels a large portion of its flight in a ballistic (free-fall) trajectory. For some longer range missiles, the fligh [..]

A ballistic missile launched from a nuclear submarine. Current submarines may carry several SLBMs, each with multiple warheads. The accuracy of such missiles was greatly improved over the course of th [..]