Editing Intercontinental ballistic missile (section)

=== World War II ===
[[File:R-7 (7A) misil.svg|thumb|upright|Primary views of an [[R-7 Semyorka]], the world's first ICBM and satellite launch vehicle]]
The first practical design for an ICBM grew out of [[Nazi Germany]]'s [[V-2 rocket]] program. The liquid-fueled V-2, designed by [[Wernher von Braun]] and his team, was then widely used by Nazi Germany from mid-1944 until March 1945 to bomb British and Belgian cities, particularly Antwerp and London.

Under ''Projekt Amerika,'' von Braun's team developed the [[Aggregate (rocket family)#A9/A10|A9/10]] ICBM, intended for use in bombing New York and other American cities. Initially intended to be guided by radio, it was changed to be a piloted craft after the failure of [[Operation Elster]]. The second stage of the A9/A10 rocket was tested a few times in January and February 1945.

After the war, the US executed [[Operation Paperclip]], which took von Braun and hundreds of other leading Nazi scientists to the United States to develop [[IRBM]]s, ICBMs, and [[launch vehicle|launchers]] for the US Army.

This technology was predicted by US General of the Army [[Hap Arnold]], who wrote in 1943:
{{Blockquote | Someday, not too distant, there can come streaking out of somewhere – we won't be able to hear it, it will come so fast – some kind of gadget with an explosive so powerful that one projectile will be able to wipe out completely this city of Washington.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.ndu.edu/press/spacepower.html |chapter-url=http://www.ndu.edu/press/space-Ch19.html |title=Toward a Theory of Space Power |chapter=19: Increasing the Military Uses of Space |first1=Everett C. |last1=Dolman |first2=Henry F. Jr |last2=Cooper |publisher=NDU Press |access-date=2012-04-19  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215061633/http://www.ndu.edu/press/spacepower.html |archive-date=15 February 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Correll |first=John T. |url=https://www.gkpadho.com/current-affairs-20-feb-2018/ |title=World's most powerful ballistic missile |journal=GK Padho |access-date=2018-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222044758/https://www.gkpadho.com/current-affairs-20-feb-2018/ |archive-date=22 February 2018  }}</ref>}}