A ballistic missile flies really high (as in, space high), and then just 'falls' to its target. In that way it travels a 'ballistic' trajectory, like a bullet would on the way down. (Though many can slightly angle on the way down to dodge defenses and better hit targets)
As a result they can be going crazy fast on their way down. Very hard to defend against. Easiest is to shoot them down on the way up, but they do that over friendly territory. If you have a good enough system, you can sometimes intercept them in space, but that still quite hard.
Hamas rockets are also ballistic missiles, just smaller and cruder ones.
That said, those appear to be missing, so would they even intercept, given the risk that intercepting a miss would result in debris which could easily hit something?
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u/jagedlion Oct 02 '24
A ballistic missile flies really high (as in, space high), and then just 'falls' to its target. In that way it travels a 'ballistic' trajectory, like a bullet would on the way down. (Though many can slightly angle on the way down to dodge defenses and better hit targets)
As a result they can be going crazy fast on their way down. Very hard to defend against. Easiest is to shoot them down on the way up, but they do that over friendly territory. If you have a good enough system, you can sometimes intercept them in space, but that still quite hard.