Eli5: how are ICBM tested for their range without causing false alarms?

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Say the usa and soviet union in cold war. History has records of incidents were dalse alarms (including one from the sun) almost started nuclear armageddon.

How did they keep testing missiles (ICBM) with longer and longer ranges without it being detected as a real missle?

Not to mention there are still states that are neighbored by hostile countries and still manage to do their ICBM tests with ranges encompassing multiple continents. How do they manage it?

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6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I’m not an expert but I don’t think anyone has answered the specific part of your question about how they test the range. As far as I know they usually use a “lofted” trajectory. Instead of shooting it at a lower angle for a longer distance, they shoot it almost vertically to test how high up it goes.

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