Defending an area against incoming missiles is a difficult task. Missiles are incredibly fast and present a small target. Assuming you know they’re coming, you have to be able to track them accurately if you’re to have any hope of stopping them. Then, you need some kind of wonderous missile of your own that’s fast enough and maneuverable enough to take them out.
It’s a task that at times can seem overwhelmingly impossible. And yet, the devastating consequences of a potential nuclear attack are so great that the US military had a red hot go anyway. In the 1970s, America’s best attempt to thwart incoming Soviet ICBMs led to the development of the Sprint ABM—a missile made up entirely of improbable numbers.
Mach 10? You Betcha
A Sprint interceptor on a test stand, as pictured by the US DoD.
The Sprint anti-ballistic missile was an engineering effort in response to the nuclear threat posed by the Cold War. This missile, with its astonishing performance and parameters, was designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles during their terminal phase in the moments before impact.
Despite its crucial task, and its impressive capabilities, the Sprint missile had a relatively short operational life, a reflection of the rapidly evolving strategic landscape of the time.
Developed in the late 1960s as part of the United States Army’s Safeguard Program, the Sprint was a key component of a layered missile defense system intended to protect against Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). It was intended to operate in tandem with the longer-range LIM-49 Spartan missile. The Spartan was designed to engage threats outside the atmosphere, with Sprint missiles addre ..
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