Use the dropdown menus below to build a constellation of space-based missile interceptors. Hover over the interactive map to learn more about the effective boost phase missile defense created by each constellation.
Interceptors Within Range
The selected constellation could not guarantee boost phase missile defense for any region on Earth.
With this constellation, a minimum of to interceptors would always be within range of North Korea, Iran would be covered by to interceptors, China by to , and Russia by to .
Space-based missile interceptors (SBIs) are weapons in space designed to descend from orbit and strike a missile during flight. Although no SBIs are currently in operation, they remain a particularly attractive option to some missile defense advocates due to their potential ability to intercept missiles during boost phase—the first phase of flight, while the missile's engines are still firing and the warhead remains inside the rocket body.
But due to the limited time frame in which a missile is in boost phase—about three minutes for a solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile—SBIs face a simple, but significant technical challenge: being in the right place at the right time. In order to guarantee enough interceptors are within range of a given threat region, hundreds or thousands of SBIs may be required, offering excellent missile defense to irrelevant regions in the process.