Extended Long Range surveillance

摘要

It is often forgotten that the ballistic missile is not in itself a new type of threat. Indeed, it is now over 65 years since major population and industrial centres across Western Europe found themselves under sustained attack by the V-2 rocket, the first long-range ballistic missile to be operationally deployed.rnThe V-2 opened a new and frightening chapter in warfare. Launched from fixed sites or mobile trailers, it flew a high altitude (exo-atmospheric) ballistic trajectory to deliver a one-ton conventional explosive payload to a maximum range of about 360 km, arriving with no warning and impacting at three times the speed of sound with devastating effect. Its speed and trajectory made it invulnerable to interception by the anti-air defences of the day.