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Article: Missiles, Military
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MISSILES, MILITARY
MISSILES, MILITARY,
include the spectrum of rockets and jet vehicles, ballistic or winged in flight, capable of carrying destructive payloads ranging from tactical weapons to "nation buster" thermonuclear warheads at intercontinental ranges (intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs). World War II saw the development of missilery by the major participants: the U.S. hand-held bazooka antitank weapon; the artillery-like Soviet Katyusha and U.S. naval barrage rocket; a variety of antiaircraft missiles for air and ground forces; the innovative German V-1 pulse-jet buzz bomb; and the German supersonic, liquid-fuel V-2 ballistic missile with a range of 200 miles, ...