World War II ended after the use of two atom bombs on the Japanese cities by the United States of America. It was the first time in the history of mankind that such kind of weaponry was used to annihilate an adversary. As the World Word II came to an end, United Nations was carved from League of Nations and two of the most powerful nations, USA and USSR spearheaded against each other, thus initiating a Cold War. To outperform each other, the superpowers competed in every field giving rises to the space race, the arms race, proxy wars, espionage and political subversion.
Post world war, the relevance of nuclear weapons could not be overlooked. If possessed, nuclear weapons acted as extraordinary weapons in the inventory of a nation. Nuclear weapons became both incentive and deterrent for the militaries of the world. With eyes of nuclear weapons, many nations initiated research and development on nuclear weapons. Observing the numerous nations attempting to have nuclear weapons, the Non-Proliferation Treaty came into existence in 1970. According to this treaty, only the USA, USSR, France, China and the UK could possess nuclear weapons. India, Pakistan, Israel, South Sudan and North Korea are the only countries which are the only countries not a signatory to the treaty.
As the delivery of nuclear weapons changed over time, from aircraft based to missile based, numerous countries felt the need of having an acceptable deterrent against the nuclear-armed missiles and aircraft systems. To suffice the need of the hour, countries started developing missile defence shields.
Missile Defence systems are can be understood as series of missiles deployed to intercept enemy aircraft or missiles. These missile shields may not be just limited to short-range missiles but also to ICBM (Intercontinental ballistic missiles).
The United States of America was one of the first countries to pursue missile shield. By the early 1990s, the United States had started developing the national wide anti-missile program. National Missile Defence (NMD) is the terminology used to define the missile shield program. Presently, under the NMD program, USA operates Ground-based Interceptor Missiles, Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence System, Terminal High Altitude Area Defence(THAAD), Airborne Systems, Patriot System and short-range anti-ballistic missile systems.
Russia developed a missile shield for their capital, Moscow and its nearby areas by the year 1995 called A-135. Likewise, Russia developed S-300V and S-400 Triumf systems capable of intercepting RCBM and ICBM respectively.
By the dawn of 2017, Israel started operating home-made “Arrow Missile System” which has nationwide coverage. In addition to “Arrow”, Israel operates Iron Dome system designed to destroy short-range rockets and an artillery shell.
Likewise, the largest democracy in the world and non-signatory of NPT, India is also on its way of developing Missile Shields with its program Ballistic Missile Defence program. It consists of two-tier defence mechanism, PAD( Prithvi Air defence) and AAD(Advance Air defence). With successful testing of these systems at the end of the last decade, India became the fourth country to develop a missile shield successfully. Moreover, India recently bought 5 S-400 triumf systems from Russia to protect its assets.
On the other hand, the second largest economy, China has deployed its own missile shields along with Russian S-300V and S-400(ordered)systems. Other than these counties, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are developing a missile defence system. Following UAE, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are in talks with the USA to deploy THAAD in their respective countries. A NATO missile defence system is being developed by NATO member to protect Europe from missile attacks.
