page_title: Ballistic missile
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ballistic missile / History
caption_attribution_description: English: V2-Rocket in the Peenemünde Museum Deutsch: V2-Rakete im Peenemünde Museum Français&#160;: Musée de Peenemünde. Nederlands: V2-raket in het Peenemünde Museum
context_page_description: A ballistic missile follows a ballistic trajectory to deliver one or more warheads on a predetermined target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the Earth's atmosphere, while intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched on a sub-orbital trajectory.
  These weapons are in a distinct category from cruise missiles, which are aerodynamically guided in powered flight.
context_section_description: The earliest form of ballistic missiles dates from the 13th century with its use derived from the history of rockets. In the 14th century, the Ming Chinese navy used an early form of a ballistic cruise missile weapon called the Huo long chu shui in naval battles against enemy ships. A modern pioneer ballistic missile was the A-4, commonly known as the V-2 developed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s under the direction of Wernher von Braun. The first successful launch of a V-2 was on October 3, 1942, and it began operation on September 6, 1944, against Paris, followed by an attack on London two days later. By the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, more than 3,000 V-2s had been launched.
  The R-7 Semyorka was the first intercontinental ballistic missile.
  A total of 30 nations have deployed operational ballistic missiles. Development continues with around 100 ballistic missile flight tests in 2007 (not including those of the US), mostly by the People's Republic of China, Iran, and the Russian Federation. In 2010, the U.S. and Russian governments signed a treaty to reduce their inventory of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) over a seven-year period (to 2017) to 1550 units each.
caption: Replica V-2
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