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?
In: Other
If the USA launches from Vandenburg AFB ([https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-launches-icbm-california-overnight-test/story?id=68773164](https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-launches-icbm-california-overnight-test/story?id=68773164)) then everyone is basically OK because everyone on the planet knows that Vandenburg is our test facility. Also under START we are required to give nations telemetry that tells them it is a test ([https://www.state.gov/new-start/](https://www.state.gov/new-start/)).
*To enhance transparency, the Parties annually exchange telemetric information on a parity basis, for up to five ICBM and SLBM launches per year. These measurements of various technical parameters are made to monitor missile performance during ICBM and SLBM flight tests.*
If one launches from Wyoming or Montana – we are all screwed, those are nuclear tipped missiles.
That is for Russia and the USA, the two nations with the most ICBMs, by far. It gets dicier when we are talking about non-signatory countries, like Israel. Israel conducts missile tests ([https://www.timesofisrael.com/iai-tests-short-range-ballistic-missile-hitting-2-small-floating-targets-at-sea/](https://www.timesofisrael.com/iai-tests-short-range-ballistic-missile-hitting-2-small-floating-targets-at-sea/)) but they tend to be of pretty short range. I don’t know for certain, but I am sure they tell Russia and the USA before they do these things, and tell them repeatedly and insistently so as to avoid being nuked into oblivion by mistake.
Then there is someone like North Korea, where we don’t really know what they are going to do, and if they tell us, we don’t believe them in any real way. This is where the MAD theory comes into play, they can saber rattle but if they launch and it even suggests it will hit a major country or ally they will be nuked into oblivion.
Only a few countries can launch ICBMs that can hit anywhere in the world, those countries are Russia, USA, China, Britain, and France. Those nations tend to have diplomatic relations which will prevent us from cross nuking each other because of an error. The risk is just too high.
Latest Answers