page_title: Military technology
section_title: Space
hierarchical_section_title: Military technology / Postmodern technology / Space
caption_attribution_description: LGM-118A Peacekeeper missile system being tested at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. This is a long exposure photo showing the paths of the multiple re-entry vehicles deployed by the missile. One Peacekeeper can hold up to 10 nuclear warheads, each independently targeted. Were the warheads armed with a nuclear payload, each would carry with it the explosive power of twenty-five Hiroshima-sized weapons which is equivalent to around 400 kilotons of TNT.
context_page_description: Military technology is the application of technology for use in warfare. It comprises the kinds of technology that are distinctly military in nature and not civilian in application, usually because they lack useful or legal civilian applications, or are dangerous to use without appropriate military training.
  The line is porous; military inventions have been brought into civilian use throughout history, with sometimes minor modification if any, and civilian innovations have similarly been put to military use.
  Military technology is often researched and developed by scientists and engineers specifically for use in battle by the armed forces. Many new technologies came as a result of the military funding of science.
  Armament engineering is the design, development, testing and lifecycle management of military weapons and systems. It draws on the knowledge of several traditional engineering disciplines, including mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mechatronics, electro-optics, aerospace engineering, materials engineering, and chemical engineering.
context_section_description: During the Cold War, the world's two great superpowers — the Soviet Union and the United States of America — spent large proportions of their GDP on developing military technologies.  The drive to place objects in orbit stimulated space research and started the Space Race.  In 1957, the USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1.
  By the end of the 1960s, both countries regularly deployed satellites. Spy satellites were used by militaries to take accurate pictures of their rivals' military installations.  As time passed the resolution and accuracy of orbital reconnaissance alarmed both sides of the iron curtain.  Both the United States and the Soviet Union began to develop anti-satellite weapons to blind or destroy each other's satellites.  Laser weapons, kamikaze style satellites, as well as orbital nuclear explosion were researched with varying levels of success.  Spy satellites were, and continue to be, used to monitor the dismantling of military assets in accordance with arms control treaties signed between the two superpowers. To use spy satellites in such a manner is often referred to in treaties as "national technical means of verification".
  The superpowers developed ballistic missiles to enable them to use nuclear weaponry across great distances. As rocket science developed, the range of missiles increased and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) were created, which could strike virtually any target on Earth in a timeframe measured in minutes rather than hours or days.  In order to cover large distances ballistic missiles are usually launched into sub-orbital spaceflight.
  As soon as intercontinental missiles were developed, military planners began programmes and strategies to counter their effectiveness.
caption: Test of the LG-118A Peacekeeper missile, each one of which could carry 10 independently targeted nuclear warheads along trajectories outside of the Earth's atmosphere.
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