David Wright: An Introduction to Ballistic Missiles

This is a presentation from the Union of Concerned Scientists' webinar series on nuclear weapons and global security. For a complete list of past webinars (and links to the videos), please see: www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons...
Abstract:
This is a version of a presentation I gave as part of a training course on non-proliferation. While missiles are complicated from an engineering point of view, they are relatively simple from a physics point of view. My goal is to use the basic physics of missiles to explain what countries developing ballistic missiles must do to increase their range, payload, and accuracy, and what the main challenges are that they face along the way. I illustrate these issues with North Korea and Iran’s development programs.
Decisions that missile designers make are also strongly shaped by engineering issues, availability of materials, and other issues. We plan to follow this talk with a presentation in the fall that looks at the development programs of emerging missile states from an engineering point of view.
Bio:
David Wright is Co-Director and Senior Scientist in the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where he has worked since 1992. Before that he was a Fellow in the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, a Senior Analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, and an analyst in the MIT Security Studies Program. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and was a recipient of the 2001 APS Joseph A. Burton Forum Award. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University in 1983. One focus of his work for many years has been technical studies of North Korea’s ballistic missile program.