Mutually assured destruction
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Mutually assured destruction or mutual assured destruction is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuc
Aftermath of the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945), to date one of the only two times a nuclear strike has been performed as an act of war
Boeing B-47B Stratojet Rocket-Assisted Take Off (RATO) on April 15, 1954
B-52D Stratofortress being refueled by a KC-135 Stratotanker, 1965
Robert McNamara
A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle is an exoatmospheric ballistic missile payload containing several warheads, each capable of being aimed to hit a different target. The concept is al
Mutually assured destruction
…studies showed technological and logistical problems in these systems, including the inability to distinguish between real and decoy weapons. The multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) was another weapons system designed specifically to aid with the MAD nuclear deterrence doctrine. With a MIRV payload, one ICBM could hold many…
The MIRV U.S. Peacekeeper missile, with the re-entry vehicles highlighted in red.
Technicians secure a number of Mk12A re-entry vehicles on a Peacekeeper MIRV bus.
LGM-118A Peacekeeper MIRV at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Cut away diagram of a MIRV.