For centuries, missiles and rockets have played a dual role in human progress—sometimes advancing science, but more often serving as instruments of destruction. How were these technologies developed? What are they capable of? And how do we defend against them?
The Greek scholar Archytas was a mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and military commander—but he was also something of a mechanical wizard. A Roman historian describes how Archytas astonished the citizens of Tarentum (modern-day Taranto in southern Italy) with a remarkable invention: a wooden bird that appeared to fly. Suspended on a wire or string, the bird moved rapidly, propelled by a jet of steam emitted from its rear.
Devised around 2,400 years ago, Archytas’s creation is likely the earliest known example of gas-powered propulsion. In this case, the propellant was steam—water vapor—expelled through a narrow tube. As the steam was ejected backward, it pushed the bird forward along the string. The mechanism worked on the principle of action and reaction: as the steam was forced out in one direction, it pushed the bird with equal force in the opposite direction. More than two millennia would pass before Isaac Newton formally articulated this principle as the third of his laws of motion.
An early demonstration of Newton’s third law—nearly 2,000 years before Newton’s time. Model of Archytas’ flying bird at the Kotsanas Museum in Athens | Photo: Aga39memnon, Wikipedia
In Place of Immortality
Many centuries passed after Archytas’ ingenious demonstrations in Tarentum before the next major advance in gas-powered propulsion emerged. The exact timing of this breakthrough is uncertain, but it likely occurred in China during the 12th or 13th century.
A few hundred years earlier, Chinese alchemists had been searching for the elixir of immortality. Though they never achieved that goal, they discovered something else entirely: black powder, known today as gunpowder. While earlier records mention flammable substances used in various regions, the formulation developed by Chinese alchemists in the 9th century CE was notably more stable, safe to handle, and made from readily available ingredients: saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal.
Saltpeter (from Latin sal petrae, or "rock salt") is a mineral primarily composed of potassium nitrate (KNO₃). When heated with sulfur and the carbon in charcoal, the mixture combusts and produces large volumes of gas—mainly carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen (N₂), and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S). When this reaction takes place in a sealed container, the pressure from the expanding gases builds up until the container explodes.
This is likely the earliest known application of gunpowder in history. By the 10th century, the Chinese were stuffing bamboo tubes with black powder, sealing them, and throwing them into bonfires during festivals to create explosive visual effects. Occasionally, an imperfectly sealed tube with just the right opening would suddenly launch skyward, propelled by the escaping gases.
Some scholars recognized the potential of this phenomenon and began experimenting with the new technology. The first documented military use of such rockets dates to a battle between the Chinese and Mongols in 1232, where the Chinese deployed “fire arrows.” These consisted of long sticks with short bamboo tubes attached, perforated at one end and filled with gunpowder. When the powder was ignited, the fire arrow launched at high speed—traveling hundreds of meters, whistling eerily, and trailing fire from its rear.
It’s unclear whether these arrows inflicted significant physical damage on the Mongol forces, but their psychological impact was considerable and contributed to the Mongols’ retreat. Ironically, the Mongols ultimately benefited from the encounter: they adopted the new technology and soon began refining it themselves. They are likely responsible for transmitting rocket technology to the Arab world—and from there, it spread to Europe within a relatively short time.
The term “rocket” is thought to have originated in Italy, likely derived from the Italian rocchetta, meaning “little distaff” or “spindle” (a tool used in spinning wool) possibly referencing the rocket’s cylindrical, spool-like shape.
A dramatic psychological effect that brought Chinese technology to the West. Illustration of a Chinese warrior lighting a “fire arrow” | Source: Aloriel~commonswiki, Wikipedia
Cannons Over Rockets
During that period, rockets were used primarily for pyrotechnics (fireworks) and for setting fires in enemy territory. The French writer and historian Jean Froissart is credited with first proposing the idea of launching a rocket through a tube—an innovation that greatly improved accuracy and served as a prototype for several modern rocket applications.
By packing gunpowder into a thick metal tube sealed at one end, loading a heavy ball into the barrel, and lighting a fuse that reaches the powder, the explosion would create gas pressure that would launch the ball at incredible speed toward the enemy. With some skill, these weapons could achieve impressive accuracy.
However, from a historical standpoint, rockets lagged far behind in military impact from their predecessor—gunpowder. Instead of focusing on launching entire projectiles, Europeans eagerly embraced another Chinese invention: the cannon. By packing gunpowder into a thick metal barrel sealed at one end, loading a heavy metal ball, and igniting the powder with a fuse, the resulting explosion generated gas pressure that propelled the ball at high speed toward the enemy. With proper training, early cannons could achieve impressive accuracy.
The invention of the cannon revolutionized warfare, enabling attacking armies to breach fortress walls or sink ships from a distance. Before long, lighter versions of cannons appeared on the battlefield—handheld firearms whose projectiles were not designed to demolish structures, but to inflict deadly internal injuries on enemy soldiers and animals.
As firearms like rifles and pistols became more widespread, the explosive substance that powered them came to be known by its now-familiar English name: gunpowder.
An invention that reshaped warfare and overshadowed early rocketry. Cannons used by the Ottoman army during the siege of Esztergom, Hungary, 1543. Painting by Sebastiano Franck, 17th century | Source: Wikipedia, Public Domain
From India to England
In the late 18th century, as the British army advanced in its campaign to conquer India, it encountered an unexpected challenge during battles in the southern principality of Mysore. Local forces surprised the British with sophisticated rocket attacks—rockets constructed not from bamboo, as was common elsewhere, but from metal tubes. Though these rockets did not cause large-scale destruction, they had a powerful psychological effect, especially on the British cavalry, ultimately forcing the British troops to retreat.
Some of these rockets were fitted with sharp blades at the front, which caused them to spin uncontrollably toward the end of their flight. As a result, they landed among British troops like whirling, flying swords—slashing erratically at everything in their path. After eventually conquering Mysore, the British collected samples of the rockets and sent them to England for study. The task of developing similar weapons was entrusted to Colonel William Congreve, who examined the Indian designs and worked to refine and improve them. Among his innovations, Congreve developed explosive and incendiary warheads. His rockets played a role in the British victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He also invented a rocket equipped with a parachute and light source for battlefield illumination—a principle still used today in modern flare munitions.
Congreve's rockets were metal tubes several dozen centimeters long, each fitted with an exceptionally long wooden stick—sometimes up to two meters—that acted as a stabilizing tail. Later, research revealed that rockets could achieve better stability by spinning during flight, much like a rifled bullet. Building on this insight, English engineer William Hale developed a more advanced design. His rockets featured small tail fins and curved exhaust nozzles that vented some of the gases to induce spin. These innovations made the rockets more stable in flight and eliminated the need for the long, unwieldy guide stick—bringing them closer in design to modern rocketry.
Despite these advancements, rockets gradually fell out of favor as military weapons, largely due to rapid progress in artillery technology, which offered greater accuracy and power. By the time of World War I, rockets were used only sparingly—primarily for signaling and illumination flares.
Refined the Indian rocket design. William Congreve, portrayed in 1807 by James Lonsdale, with technical drawings of his various rocket types | Source: Wikipedia, Public Domain
Alongside the development of rockets for warfare and pyrotechnics, there were occasional visionaries who dreamed of using rockets for transportation. A 16th-century Chinese legend tells of a government official named Wan Hu who attempted to fly using rockets. He mounted a seat atop a battery of no fewer than 47 rockets and instructed his men to light them all at once. When the smoke cleared, Wan Hu and his rocket chariot had vanished without a trace. It seems he fulfilled the biblical story of the prophet Elijah and ascended to the heavens in a whirlwind.
Alongside the development of rockets for warfare and pyrotechnics, occasional visionaries dreamed of using them for transportation. A 16th-century Chinese legend tells of a government official named Wan Hu who attempted to fly using rockets. He mounted a seat atop a battery of no fewer than 47 rockets and instructed his men to light them simultaneously. When the smoke cleared, Wan Hu and his rocket contraption had vanished without a trace—leading some to liken his ascent to that of the biblical prophet Elijah, who was said to have risen to the heavens in a whirlwind.
Whether the story is true remains unclear, but over time, several inventors experimented with rocket-powered wheeled vehicles—such as locomotives or rocket-propelled carts —though none achieved success. In the early 20th century, however, a new vision began to take shape—one that would transform the future of rocketry.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (Циолковский) was born in 1867 in a small village in western Russia. A childhood illness left him partially deaf, preventing him from completing elementary school. What formal education denied him, he compensated for through obsessive reading—particularly of science books. He taught himself mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and eventually earned a position as a schoolteacher.
Inspired by the novels of Jules Verne, Tsiolkovsky developed a deepening interest in space exploration. He published numerous ideas, including the construction of manned space colonies, orbital stations, and even a space elevator—an idea inspired by the construction of the Eiffel Tower.
But unlike science fiction writers, Tsiolkovsky proposed practical solutions to the challenges of human activity in space. He designed biological systems to supply food and oxygen, as well as mechanisms that would allow astronauts to exit a spacecraft into the vacuum of space—and reenter it. Today, such systems, known as airlocks, are essential components of space stations.
By the time of his death in 1935, Tsiolkovsky had published around 400 papers, many of them focused on rocketry. He studied the aerodynamic resistance of rocket flight in depth, expressed it mathematically, and calculated that a multi-stage rocket could overcome Earth's gravity if powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. He also conceived ideas for constructing such a rocket and for developing a guidance system for it. Although he never built a rocket himself, Tsiolkovsky is regarded today as one of the founding fathers of rocketry and a pioneer of the idea of human spaceflight.
Offered practical solutions, including in the fields of rocketry and space travel. Tsiolkovsky in 1913 | Source: Wikipedia, Public Domain
Liquid Propulsion Takes Flight
While Tsiolkovsky was publishing his papers in Russian, on the other side of the globe, a young man in Massachusetts began developing a deep interest in rockets for space exploration. Even in high school, Robert Goddard began formulating early ideas about spaceflight and rocketry. Likely unaware of his Russian counterpart’s work, Goddard independently developed the idea of liquid-fueled rocket propulsion, envisioning it as a means to reach space.
After earning his Ph.D. in physics in 1911, he began seriously working on building such rockets. His progress was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, when he was recruited by the military to help develop portable rocket weapons. He led early efforts to create what would later become the bazooka—an anti-tank rocket launcher designed to be carried by a soldier. Although others completed the development, the bazooka went on to become a key weapon in World War II.
Goddard returned to liquid-fuel propulsion, and in December 1926, he successfully launched the first rocket powered by gasoline and liquid oxygen. He personally designed a system of tanks and pumps that injected the fuel and oxidizer into a combustion chamber, where they ignited and expelled high-pressure gases, propelling the rocket upward.
The small rocket, about 30 centimeters long, flew for just 2.5 seconds, reached an altitude of approximately 12 meters, and landed in a cabbage patch less than 60 meters from the launch site—on his aunt's farm. Despite its modest scale, the experiment marked a breakthrough and demonstrated the feasibility of liquid-fueled rocket propulsion.
Goddard began refining his rockets, and within a decade, he was launching rockets 4–5 meters long to altitudes of several kilometers. He developed a gyroscopic guidance system that allowed a rocket to change direction and transition from vertical launch to horizontal flight, parallel to the ground.
Goddard’s ultimate dream was to use liquid-fueled rockets for spaceflight—a vision that was frequently ridiculed. In 1920, The New York Times wrote:
“That professor Goddard does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react -- to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.”
In 1929, when one of Goddard’s rockets soared hundreds of meters into the air, causing a local stir, a local newspaper mockingly ran the headline:
“Moon Rocket Misses Target By 238,799 1/2 Miles.”
In 1941, Goddard stopped his experiments and joined the American military effort, shortly before the U.S. formally entered World War II. To his disappointment, the armed forces showed little interest in his proposals for long-range rockets. Instead, the Navy assigned him to develop advanced booster rockets to assist aircraft in taking off more efficiently from aircraft carriers. Goddard worked on this system until his death from throat cancer in 1945, just days before Japan’s surrender and the end of the war.
From a 12-meter hop to flights reaching several kilometers. Robert Goddard with the first liquid-fueled rocket, 1926 | Source: Wikipedia, Public Domain
Checking the Box
Although the American military showed little interest in Goddard’s rockets, across the Atlantic there were those who took a keen interest. Even before the outbreak of World War II, the Nazi regime began investing in a missile program. Dr. Wernher von Braun, a young physicist and engineer with a passion for space, was recruited for the effort. He had already conducted independent experiments with launching liquid-fueled rockets.
Von Braun fully committed to the Nazi war effort, leading the development of rockets that would become known as the V2. These were intended to replace the earlier V1—not a true rocket, but an unmanned jet-powered aircraft packed with explosives, which the Nazis launched toward London and Antwerp in the later stages of the war.
The V2 was a large rocket—about 14 meters long—powered by alcohol and liquid oxygen. It carried a 1,000-kilogram explosive warhead and had a range of 300 kilometers. The first V2 was launched at Britain in September 1944, and by the end of the war, the Nazis had fired around 3,000 of them, killing more than 7,000 people.
On the German side, however, at least 20,000 forced laborers died under horrific conditions in underground bunkers where the rockets were manufactured. Von Braun never publicly objected to the prisoners’ working conditions. After the first successful launch, he reportedly remarked that the rocket had functioned well—“but landed on the wrong planet.”
Due to comments of this sort —and remarks expressing a preference for launching rockets to the Moon rather than at people—von Braun was arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of crimes against the state. He was released only after pressure from his colleagues, who argued that rocket production could not proceed without him.
In later years, von Braun claimed he had been unaware of the conditions under which forced laborers worked. However, after his death, evidence confirmed that he had been fully aware of them.
As the war neared its end, a V2 rocket captured by the Americans reached Robert Goddard. He was convinced it was a copy of his own work. Years later, von Braun admitted that the technologies Goddard had developed had saved the Nazi rocket program many years of effort.
The first ballistic missile, with a range of approximately 300 kilometers. Launch of a V2 rocket from Nazi Germany’s development site at Peenemünde, 1943 | Source: Bundesarchiv, Wikipedia
Crossing The Atlantic
By the end of World War II, it was clear to all sides that the weapons of the future would combine the newly developed nuclear bomb with long-range delivery systems. Wernher von Braun, likely recognizing this more clearly than anyone, quickly assembled a group of his colleagues and surrendered to the U.S. Army—before the Nazis could eliminate him to protect their missile secrets.
Von Braun and more than 100 German engineers were transferred to the United States in a secret operation. Instead of standing trial for war crimes, they were assigned to work on the development of intercontinental missiles for the Americans - particularly guided missiles that could be steered toward a target and corrected mid-flight.
The German engineers held an ambiguous status. They were not classified as prisoners of war, yet they were not permitted to move freely without military escort. In 1955, the restrictions were lifted, and von Braun was granted American citizenship.
Alongside his work on military missile development, von Braun began publicly promoting his ideas for space exploration, including plans for a manned space station and astronaut launches. He also collaborated with Disney Studios on several television series about space, aiming to generate public interest in his vision.
From the Gulag to Space
While Wernher von Braun and his team were en route to the United States, an even larger group of personnel from the German missile program was heading in the opposite direction—behind the Iron Curtain. The Soviet army captured no fewer than 5,000 individuals involved in the development, production, and launch of V2 missiles, along with the missiles themselves and their components. All were placed under the authority of Sergei Korolev (Королёв), head of the Soviet Union’s missile program.
Korolev’s path to this position was far from smooth. He began his career designing gliders, gradually transitioned into aircraft engineering, and eventually became involved in rocket propulsion. By the 1930s, he was already working on rocket development. However, in 1938, during Stalin’s purges, he was arrested after a colleague accused him of wasting state resources on liquid-fueled rocket projects—favored less by the Soviet regime than solid-fuel rockets.
During his imprisonment, Korolev was held in a special labor camp for scientists, where he continued working on rockets under strict surveillance. He was eventually released in 1944, resumed his work on missile development, and was granted the rank of colonel in the Red Army. After the war, Korolev studied the V2 extensively and made significant improvements. Within a few years, he had developed rockets capable of carrying a nuclear warhead across thousands of kilometers—comparable to the missiles von Braun was building in the United States.
Like von Braun, Korolev grew increasingly interested in using rockets for spaceflight and submitted proposals to the authorities for launching spacecraft that would carry animals—and eventually, humans.
The key difference between a ballistic missile flight and placing an object into Earth orbit is velocity. To achieve orbit, an object must reach an altitude of at least 100 kilometers and a speed of 7.8 kilometers per second (just over 28,000 km/h). At lower speeds, the object will simply fall back to Earth—just like a ballistic missile.
To reach orbital velocity, an additional rocket stage is typically added to provide the necessary boost. The heavier the payload, the more energy—and fuel—is required, making the upper stage larger and more complex.
Korolev successfully persuaded the Soviet leadership to invest in modifying a missile for satellite launch, aided by intelligence suggesting that the Americans were developing such a satellite—and that the Soviets had a chance to beat them to it and secure a major propaganda victory.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, atop an R-7 rocket—a ballistic missile developed by Korolev, which he had successfully adapted to carry payloads into Earth orbit.
The Space Age had begun.
The rocket that launched humanity into space. Model of the R-7 ballistic missile, adapted for orbital payloads and later used to launch humans | Source: MBH, Wikipedia
Big Ben to the Moon
The Soviet Union’s success in space stunned the Americans. Just four months after Sputnik, the U.S. managed to launch its first satellite, Explorer, atop a modified ballistic missile. Around the same time, the U.S. separated its civilian and military missile programs and established NASA—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Yet Korolev and his team continued to push forward, maintaining their lead over the Americans in space exploration. Just a month after launching the first satellite, they sent a dog into orbit. Soon after, they began launching lunar probes using upgraded R-7 rockets. In 1959, the probe Luna 2 crash-landed on the Moon (controlled landings would come later), becoming the first human-made object to reach the surface of another celestial body.
On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union marked its greatest space triumph: the first human spaceflight. The Vostok 1 spacecraft, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (Гагарин), launched aboard an upgraded R-7 rocket—renamed Vostok, meaning “East” in Russian—and completed a full orbit around Earth.
At that point, the Soviets were the undisputed leaders in space and missile technology. The American response came only weeks later, when they launched their first astronaut, Alan Shepard—but his flight merely reached the edge of space and did not complete an orbit. The sense of falling behind reached the White House, prompting President John F. Kennedy to declare a bold new goal: to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
From that point on, Washington poured vast sums into the space program—on a scale the Soviets couldn’t match. Von Braun and his team, now working at NASA, concentrated on developing the most powerful rockets ever built: the Saturn series. These rockets needed to generate immense thrust not because of the Moon’s distance, but because they had to lift a massive payload into Earth orbit. Once in orbit, the spacecraft could use orbital velocity to continue its journey to the Moon with a relatively modest rocket engine.
The largest of these rockets, the Saturn V, was designed to carry a payload of 120,000 kg to an altitude of about 2,000 kilometers. By comparison, a ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead has to reach only one-tenth that altitude with a payload a hundred times lighter.
In principle, the Saturn V wasn’t fundamentally different from the V2—or even from Goddard’s simple rocket, launched on his aunt’s farm 40 years earlier. It used tanks filled with liquid fuel and oxidizer that ignited in a combustion chamber to produce high-pressure gases, propelling the rocket.
Unlike simpler rockets, the Saturn V was a multi-stage rocket—essentially several rockets stacked on top of one another. The first stage ignited at liftoff, providing the initial thrust, and detached once its fuel was exhausted. The second stage then ignited, and after burning through its fuel, it too separated and fell away, allowing the third stage to fire. This sequence enabled the upper stages to propel a much smaller, lighter vehicle and allowed each engine to be optimized for its specific phase of flight.
The full rocket, topped by its spacecraft, stood nearly 112 meters tall—higher than the Statue of Liberty or London’s Big Ben. Its base stage was over 10 meters wide, and the total mass reached about 3,000 tons.
After five launches in the Apollo program, the Saturn V rocket successfully carried the Apollo 11 spacecraft on its historic journey to the first human landing on the Moon. The astronauts who set foot on the lunar surface became national heroes, but rocket developer Wernher von Braun was also recognized. In 1975, two years before his death, he was awarded the National Medal of Science. The core rocket design he pioneered remains in use to this day.
While Apollo 11 was en route to the Moon, The New York Times published an apology for its earlier treatment of Robert Goddard in 1920. The editors wrote:
“Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th century and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error.”
Later, when NASA needed to launch its heaviest payload ever—the Space Shuttle, weighing nearly 2,000 tons, ten times more than the Apollo spacecraft—a special launch system was developed. The huge orange rocket-like structure was actually a 47-meter fuel tank, containing 760 tons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, feeding engines mounted on the shuttle.
Two solid-fuel boosters attached to the tank provided most of the initial thrust. Fueled by ammonium perchlorate, they burned for the first two minutes of flight before detaching and falling into the ocean, where they were usually recovered and reused. This system took the shuttles to a relatively low orbit (about 400 kilometers). For more distant destinations like Mars, space agencies still rely on multi-stage rockets, capable of carrying heavy payloads into higher orbits and propelling them onward to distant targets.
The biggest rocket of all operated on the same principles as Goddard’s simple rocket prototypes: burning fuel and expelling gas at high pressure. Launch of Saturn V carrying Apollo 11 to the first human Moon landing, 1969 | Photo: NASA
The Reusability Revolution
One of the biggest reasons rockets are so expensive is that they are typically single-use. In military settings, this makes sense—they’re designed to detonate on impact. But in spaceflight, launch costs could be dramatically reduced if rocket components could be reused cost-effectively. When the United States built the Space Shuttle as the first reusable spacecraft, it became clear just how difficult that was to achieve. The shuttle contained hundreds of thousands of components that required inspection before each launch, and maintenance costs soared as the fleet aged—until it was finally grounded in 2011, following two major disasters that claimed the lives of 14 astronauts.
In the past decade, the American company SpaceX began operating Falcon 9 rockets, classified as medium-lift launch vehicles. After completing its job at around 70 kilometers altitude, the rocket’s first stage continues to coast upward briefly due to inertia, then falls back to Earth. Just before impact, it reignites its engines, stabilizes in mid-air, navigates to a landing site—either on land or on a drone ship at sea—and executes a soft, vertical landing.
Although Blue Origin achieved successful landings before SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company quickly pulled ahead. SpaceX has now completed hundreds of successful landings, while Blue Origin remains in the low double digits. Today, SpaceX operates several Falcon 9 rockets whose first stages have flown more than 20 times each. This level of reusability allows the company to offer unbeatable launch prices and dominate a large share of the space launch market.
In recent years, SpaceX has been developing Starship—the largest launch system in history. This massive spacecraft is designed to carry hundreds of tons into Earth orbit and, crucially, to be fully reusable. Both the spacecraft and its booster are intended to land vertically and be turned around quickly for future launches.
According to Elon Musk’s vision, Starship will one day support the construction of a colony on Mars. In the near term, it is expected to enable crewed lunar missions, launch massive payloads—such as space stations—into Earth orbit, and potentially revolutionize global travel through hypersonic global transport systems, with flights like New York to Sydney or Los Angeles to Tehran taking under an hour.
For now, Starship remains in its experimental phase, with several successful vertical landings and some high-profile failures. It still appears to be a few years away from full operational deployment.
Faster, Bigger, Stronger
Over the years, the missile capabilities of the two superpowers have steadily advanced and have also spread to other countries. Today, many countries possess intercontinental missiles that can travel through space, carry nuclear or conventional warheads, re-enter the atmosphere, and strike small targets thousands of kilometers away with high precision.
As of 2025, twelve entities—eleven individual countries and the European Union—possess independent launch capabilities, allowing them to place satellites into orbit without external assistance.
Today, many countries possess conventional missiles capable of delivering large warheads over distances ranging from hundreds to thousands of kilometers. These missiles can be launched from fixed ground installations, mobile launchers, ships, submarines, or aircraft. Some are equipped with precision guidance systems, and certain types feature target-homing capabilities, such as infrared sensors that enable them to lock onto heat sources like aircraft engines and pursue moving targets.
A missile’s size is generally determined by two main factors: range and warhead size. The greater either one is, the more fuel is needed—resulting in a heavier missile overall.
In recent years, several countries have been developing hypersonic missiles—cruise missiles that travel at speeds of at least five times the speed of sound (over 6,000 km/h) and can maneuver mid-flight to evade defense systems. However, even these advanced missiles have their limitations, drawbacks, and vulnerabilities.
Hypersonic cruise missiles are capable of maneuvering at speeds exceeding 6,000 km/h. A hypersonic missile | Illustration: Alexyz3d, Shutterstock
Back to Basics
As knowledge and technology advanced, even less developed countries acquired the means to produce simple rockets. In recent decades, terrorist organizations have begun arming themselves with rockets—either acquired through purchase or manufactured independently.
One of the simplest examples is the Qassam rocket, produced by terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip since the early 2000s. The rocket’s fuel consists mainly of potassium nitrate—a substance commonly used as agricultural fertilizer and easily obtainable—mixed with sugar and packed into a metal pipe, often something like a traffic signpost. A small amount of explosive material, which can also be made from fertilizer, is added as a warhead, and the rocket is then ignited and launched.
Over time, with knowledge and funding from supportive states, terrorist groups improved these rockets—extending their range and increasing their explosive payloads. Still, the basic design of the rocket remains the same: solid fuel that burns and releases gases, combined with a stabilization mechanism and warhead. Most of these basic rockets lack any guidance system, so their impact point is determined solely by the launch angle, rocket speed, and range.
In the following years, terrorist organizations began developing precision-guided missiles. These missiles include navigation systems, usually based on GPS or another guidance method. The operators can input the target coordinates before launch, and the missiles are equipped with maneuvering systems that allow some control over their flight path, enabling them to steer themselves toward the intended target. Such missiles can be countered by jamming systems that confuse or mislead their navigation systems and cause them to deviate from their target.
More advanced missiles rely on inertial navigation: a system that combines gyroscopes (mentioned earlier) with accelerometers. In this way, the missile "knows" its position at any given moment based on measurements of direction, distance, and elapsed time—assuming it was given accurate initial coordinates at launch. These missiles can reach their targets without relying on satellite navigation or external data.
More advanced missiles use inertial navigation systems, which combine gyroscopes and accelerometers to track its position at any given moment based on measurements of direction, distance, and elapsed time—provided they start with accurate launch coordinates. These systems allow missiles to reach targets without relying on satellite navigation or external signals. However, such systems have inherent accuracy limitations, and missiles can veer off course due to factors such as atmospheric density changes, strong winds, and other environmental influences.
One of the simplest rockets. A Qassam rocket launched by Hamas at Israel, on display at the Israel Defense Forces History Museum in Tel Aviv | Photo: Bukvoed, Wikipedia
Missiles and Definitions
“There’s no shortage of wars
And troubles aren’t rare
So between a missile and a rocket
Let me chill in the shade somewhere…”
From “Let Me Lay My Head on a Dune” in the film Halfon Hill Doesn't Answer
Lyrics: Assi Dayan | Music: Naftali Alter
In professional terms, the main distinction between a rocket and a missile is guidance. A missile is equipped with guidance or control systems that allow it to be steered toward a target after launch. A rocket, by contrast, is unguided: once it leaves the launcher, it follows a fixed trajectory and cannot be adjusted in flight. This distinction is especially relevant when discussing modern weapons.
The terms “ballistic missile” or “intercontinental missile” usually refer to missiles that are guided during launch but then follow a high, arcing path—much of it outside the atmosphere. Cruise missiles, on the other hand, are also guided but fly at low altitude along a relatively level path, similar to aircraft, though with more limited maneuverability and powered by high-speed rocket engines.
By today’s definition, missiles can be guided after launch. Deployment and launch sequence of the American Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile, 1960s | Photos: U.S. Air Force
Missiles Against Missiles
As missile systems became more advanced, the United States and the Soviet Union began developing interception systems for ballistic missiles starting in the 1970s. These systems rely on radar, to detect missile launches of ballistic missiles and track their trajectories. Simultaneously, they deploy relatively small, extremely fast interceptor missiles designed either to directly collide with the incoming missile or detonate nearby to destroy it midair.
Both nations developed several such systems, though they were rarely tested under real combat conditions.
During the First Gulf War (1991), the United States adapted its Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to intercept Iraqi Scud missiles, but with very limited success. In the years that followed, the system was upgraded and demonstrated improved performance during the Second Gulf War (2003).
One of the leading countries in this field is Israel, which, in collaboration with the United States, developed the ‘Arrow’ (or ‘Hetz’, the Hebrew word for 'arrow') anti-ballistic missile system, designed to intercept ballistic and long-range missiles.
At the same time, Israel also developed—with American funding—the Iron Dome system, designed to intercept short-range rockets. Developing this system posed significant technical challenges due to the extremely short response times required to intercept rockets with flight durations of a minute or less. Within that brief window, the system must calculate the rocket’s trajectory, assess whether interception is necessary (based on the projected impact point), and launch an interceptor quickly enough to hit the target midair. Iron Dome has been tested in numerous operational scenarios, with Israel’s defense establishment reporting success rates exceeding 80%, and in some cases, even 90%.
Missile defense systems tested under fire. Interception during Operation Breaking Dawn, 2022 | Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit
The Arrow and David’s Sling systems have also undergone extensive operational testing—especially over the past two years—intercepting missiles launched from Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran. The main limitation of these systems lies in reduced effectiveness against large-scale barrages, involving dozens or even hundreds of missiles launched in a short time. In such scenarios, some missiles inevitably break through—and the recent deadly events were the result of just a few successful hits. Still, without these defense systems, the casualties and destruction would have been far worse.
The success of modern missile defense systems owes much not only to the engineers and visionaries behind them, but also to pioneers like Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, von Braun, Korolev, and other inventors who dreamed of space travel. The technologies they developed have profoundly impacted our daily lives—from satellite television to enhanced personal safety made possible by high-speed missile defense systems.