intermediate-range ballistic missile
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ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Agni-IV missile being launched from Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha, India
An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range between 3,000 and 5,500 kilometres (1,900–3,400 mi), categorized between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ballistic missiles by range is done mostly for convenience. In principle there is little difference between a high-performance IRBM and a low-performance ICBM, because decreasing payload mass can increase the range over the ICBM threshold. The range definition used here is used within the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “intermediate-range ballistic missile” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.