antiballistic missile

The Patriot is a mobile surface-to-air missile and antiballistic missile system that can shoot down incoming missiles before they hit their intended targets.

Russia began looking at ways to improve the capabilities of its strategic missile force after the United States withdrew from the antiballistic missile treaty in 2002 in order to expand its missile defenses.

The interceptors were on the same base where the United States keeps a part of its antiballistic missile fleet.

The Kremlin, for its part, has questioned Washington’s Mk-41 universal launch systems, which are used to fire antiballistic missile interceptors, in Eastern Europe.

China and the Trump administration also have clashed over the U.S. deployment in South Korea of a sophisticated antiballistic missile system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.