eli5: why can’t we intercept nuclear missiles?
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Nuclear missiles are hard to intercept, because ICBM missiles, which are the kind that has been stockpiled by world powers since the 1950s actually fly up out of the atmosphere then come down VERY fast onto the target. In order to intercept the missile, you have to detect its launch, determine where it is going to land, and send an interceptor to collide with the missile before it hits the ground.
The USA currently has systems that can intercept ICBM missiles. But these systems aren’t 100% reliable. In the event of a nuclear war, an enemy might launch 5,000 nuclear missiles at us. Even assuming that our systems were 99% effective, this would still mean that 50 missiles would get through and blow up 50 cities.
More recently, some countries have been developing alternatives to ICBMs, such as hyper-sonic glide vehicles, or nuclear tipped cruise missiles. These new technologies can’t be intercepted by existing systems meant to guard against ICBMs.
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