Plastic Roads

Plastic-waste in road construction i.e., Plastic roads. The present newly construction method highlights the developments in  using plastics waste to make plastic roads.The use and abuse of plastics vis-a-vis environmental protection  can go on, without yielding results until practical steps are initiated at the grassroots level by everyone who is in  a position to do something about it. The plastic wastes could be used in road construction and the field tests  withstood the stress and proved that plastic wastes used after proper processing as an additive would enhance the life of the roads and also solve environmental problems. Plastic is everywhere in today’?s lifestyle. It is used  for packaging, protecting, serving, and even disposing of all kinds of consumer goods. With the industrial revolution, mass production of goods started and plastic seemed to be a cheaper and effective raw material.  Today, every vital sector of the economy starting from agriculture to packaging, automobile, building construction, communication or infotech has been virtually revolutionised by the applications of plastics. Use of  this non-biodegradable (according to recent studies, plastics can stay unchanged for as long as 4500 years  on earth) product is growing rapidly and the problem is what to do with plastic-waste. Studies have linked the  improper disposal of plastic to problems as distant as breast cancer, reproductive problems in humans and  animals, genital abnormalities and even a decline in human sperm count and quality. If a ban is put on the use  of plastics on emotional grounds, the real cost would be much higher, the inconvenience much more, the  chances of damage or contamination much greater. The risks to the family health and safety would increase  and, above all the environmental burden would be manifold. Hence the question is not ‘?plastics vs no  plastics’? but it is more concerned with the judicious use and re-use of plastic-waste.

Not New.!

Plastic use in road construction is not new. It is already in use as PVC or HDPE pipe mat crossings built by cabling together PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or HDPE (high-density poly-ethylene) pipes to form plastic mats. The  plastic roads include transition mats to ease the passage of tyres up to and down from the crossing.Both  options help protect wetland haul roads from rutting by distributing the load across the surface. But the use of  plastic-waste has been a concern for scientists and engineers for a quite long time. Recent studies in this  direction have shown some hope in terms of using.

A Bangalore-based firm and a team of engineers have  developed a way of using plastic waste for road construction. An initial study was conducted in 1997 by the  team to test for strength and durability. Plastic roads mainly use plastic carry-bags, disposable cups thickness  up to 60micron (PE, PP and PS), Hard foams (PS) and any thickness (PET) bottles, Soft Foams (PE and  PP) any thickness. Laminated Plastics thickness up to 60 micron (Aluminum coated also) packing materials  used for biscuits, chocolates, etc., That are collected from garbage dumps as an important ingredient of the  construction material. When mixed with hot bitumen, plastics melt to form an oily coat over the aggregate and  the mixture is laid on the road surface like a normal tar road.

Basic Process

Waste plastic is ground and made into powder; 3 to 4 % plastic is mixed with the bitumen. Plastic increases the melting point of the bitumen and makes the road retain its flexibility during winters resulting in its long life. Use of shredded plastic waste acts as a strong “?binding agent”? for tar making the asphalt last long. By mixing  plastic with bitumen the ability of the bitumen to withstand high temperature increases. The plastic waste is  melted and mixed with bitumen in a particular ratio. Normally, blending takes place when temperature reaches 45.5C but when plastic is mixed, it remains stable even at 55C. The vigorous tests at the laboratory level  proved that the bituminous concrete mixes prepared using the treated bitumen binder fulfilled all the specified Marshall mix design criteria for surface course of road pavement. There was a substantial increase in Marshall Stability value of the BC mix, of the order of two to three times higher value in comparison with the untreated orordinary bitumen. Another important observation was that the bituminous mixes prepared using the treated binder could withstand adverse soaking conditions under water for longer duration.

Comparison

The durability of the roads laid out with shredded plastic waste is much more compared with roads with asphalt with the ordinary mix. Roads laid with plastic waste mix are found to be better than the conventional ones. The binding property of plastic makes the road last longer besides giving added strength to withstand more loads. While a normal 'highway quality' road lasts four to five years it is claimed that plastic-bitumen roads can last up to 10 years. Rainwater will not seep through because of the plastic in the tar. So, this technology will result in lesser road repairs. And as each km of road with an average width requires over two tonnes of polyblend, using plastic will help reduce non-biodegradable waste.

Expensive?

The cost of plastic road construction may be slightly higher compared to the conventional method. However, this should not deter the adoption of the technology as the  benefits are much higher than the cost. Plastic  roads would be a boon for countries like India’? Hot and extremely humid climate, where temperatures  frequently cross 50C and torrential rains create havoc, leaving most of the roads with big potholes. Already, a  kilometre-long test-track has been tested in Karnataka using this technology. The government is keen on  encouraging the setting up of small plants for mixing waste plastic and bitumen for road construction. It is hoped  that in near future we will have strong, durable and eco-friendly roads which will relieve the earth from all type of plastic-waste.

Plastics will increase the melting point of the bitumen. The use of the innovative technology not only  strengthened the road construction but also increased the road life as well as will help to improve the  environment and also creating a source of income. The plastic roads include transition mats to ease the  passage of tyres up to and down from the crossing. Both option of making roads was to protect wetland haul  roads from cracks by distributing the load across the surface. 

A stretch of 800 metre bus route of Valluvar Kottam High Road from Unit Office 21 Junction to Dr.MGR Salai  junction would have 13,700 square metre of plastic road in chennai. A 1,250-metre stretch of Nelson  Manickam Road would have 22,500 square metre of plastic road. The civic body would complete re-laying of  121 plastic roads on 80-km-long bus routes at a cost of Rs.51.7 crore. Shredded plastic waste would form at  least 8 per cent of the weight of the binder used for re-laying. Initially, the civic body planned to use plastic for  re-laying of the top layer of 40 mm in the roads. The 75 to 50 mm macadam layer beneath the top layer of 40  mm is also likely to have plastic content in areas where damage to road is high. The Corporation has put in  place bins for collection of plastic waste in every ward office. The civic body is procuring plastic for road re- laying, as it is yet to get enough plastic waste from residents. Patch work on Anna Nagar West School Road,  Perambur High Road, Greams Road and Taluk Office Road also ready for began. Work on 292 km of interior roads started at a cost of Rs.59.5 crore.

World's Longest and Sturdiest Recycled Bridge

Stretching out across the peaceful waters of the River Tweed in Peeblesshire, Scotland, the Dawyck Estate  river crossing is an unlikely record breaker. Measuring 30 meters in length and made entirely out of waste  plastic products, the newly completed structure is the world's longest and sturdiest recycled bridge. Utilizing a super-strength composite plastic material -- engineered by researchers at Rutgers University from  items as common as plastic bottles and household plastic waste -- the bridge caters for pedestrians, cars and  heavy goods vehicles. The river span is one of five such structures now in existence, although all others are  smaller and based in the U.S., and can support weights of up to 44 tons. According to Vertech Composites,  the British company behind the project, the bridge is a prototype that has the potential to meet future road and  bridge requirements in an eco-friendly manner.

Yellow Metal

Gold is always Gold since from the ancient days. This yellow metal rules the entire world. Why it is attractive?... It is scarce, It cannot be fabricated or produced in large quantities, And it is durable, homogenous and divisible, It is widely acceptable as money. These characteristics gives that much of importance to the Gold. Printed money can’t meet these criteria which increases the attractiveness of Gold.

It has always been used as a medium of exchange for goods since ancient times and has not suffered devaluation in the same ways as paper currency. Gold has a record long history as a commodity and as a store of value. It has been formally a monetary media in and around the world. Gold has faced complete official demonetization long back, yet it experiences continued and renewed interest as a private or unofficial monetary medium. Even governments around the world are making greater use of gold in international financial affairs. Over time, gold has undergone three major transitions: Gold was a medium of exchange in the early civilization. Next, an international banking system was developed around it, in which paper money was fully convertible into gold.This convertibility was ceased in 1971 by the then president Richard Nixon and a purely fiat money system took its place. Early civilizations equated gold with gods and rulers. Humans almost intuitively place a high value on gold, equating it with power, beauty and cultural elite. And since gold is widely distributed all over the globe, we find this same thinking about gold throughout ancient and modern civilizations everywhere. And because of this very basic reason, gold is hovering around $1700 per ounce, even when the US departed the gold exchange standard long back. As per the statistics, today 61% of gold demand is for jewellery purposes as compared to only 27% for investment. And this affinity towards gold is attributed to our roots.

Most other pure metals are gray or silvery white, gold is yellow. This color is determined by the density of loosely bound (valence) electrons; those electrons oscillate as a collective "plasma" medium described in terms of a quasiparticle called plasmon. The frequency of these oscillations lies in the ultraviolet range for most metals, but it falls into the visible range for gold due to subtle relativistic effects that affect the orbitals around gold atoms. Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal with a bright yellow color and luster that is considered attractive, which is maintained without tarnishing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements, solid under standard conditions. The metal therefore occurs often in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, usually with tellurium. Gold resists attacks by individual acids, but it can be dissolved.The gold content of alloys is measured in carats (k). Pure gold is designated as 24k. English gold coins intended for circulation from 1526 into the 1930s were typically a standard 22k alloy called crown gold, for hardness (American gold coins for circulation after 1837 contained the slightly lower amount of 0.900 fine gold, or 21.6 kt).

Use in Medicine

Conceived of as perhaps the most anciently administered medicine (apparently according to one source by shamanic practitioners) and known of by Dioscorides, apparent paradoxes of the actual toxicology of the substance nevertheless suggests the possibility still of serious gaps in understanding of action on physiology.

In medieval times, gold was often seen as beneficial for the health, in the belief that something so rare and beautiful could not be anything but healthy. However, only salts and radioisotopes of gold are of pharmacological value, as elemental (metallic) gold is inert to all chemicals it encounters inside the body.

Food and drink

Gold can be used in food and has the E number 175. Gold leaf, flake or dust is used on and in some gourmet foods, notably sweets and drinks as decorative ingredient. Gold flake was used by the nobility in medieval Europe as a decoration in food and drinks, in the form of leaf, flakes or dust, either to demonstrate the host's wealth or in the belief that something that valuable and rare must be beneficial for one's health.

Danziger Goldwasser (German: Gold water of Danzig) or Goldwasser (English: Goldwater) is a traditional German herbal liqueur produced in what is today Gdańsk, Poland, and Schwabach, Germany, and contains flakes of gold leaf. There are also some expensive (~$1000) cocktails which contain flakes of gold leaf. However, since metallic gold is inert to all body chemistry, it has no taste, it provides no nutrition, and it leaves the body unaltered.This metal has been a valuable and highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since long before the beginning of recorded history.

A total of 174,100 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, according to GFMS as of 2012.

Besides its widespread monetary and symbolic functions, gold has many practical uses in dentistry, electronics, and other fields. Its high malleability, ductility, resistance to corrosion and most other chemical reactions, and conductivity of electricity has led to many uses, including electric wiring, colored-glass production, and gold leafing. Its history can be traced back to 6000 BC. The other seven metals including Gold, known as the Metals of Antiquity, were the metals upon which civilisation was based. These seven metals were:(1) Gold-6000 BC (2) Copper- 4200 BC (3) Silver- 4000 BC (4) Lead-3500 BC (5) Tin-1750 BC (6) Iron,smelted-1500 BC (7) Mercury- 750 BC.These metals were known to the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and the Romans. Of the seven metals, five can be found in their native states, e.g., gold, silver, copper, iron (from meteors) and mercury. However, the occurrence of these metals was not abundant and the first two metals to be used widely were gold and copper. And, of course, the history of metals is closely linked to that of coins and gemstones.

The purchase of gold, the most frequently heard today is "Look what governments are doing, look at the record of gold, and buy gold as a safe means of beating inflation." This precious metal is bought and sold in U.S. dollars. So when dollar and other currencies experience devaluation, the value of gold rises. Between the end of 1973(at which time the price of gold had been freed in both private and official markets) and 2009, the price of gold increased from USD 106.72/oz to USD 1087.50/oz, a rise of 928%. Adjusting for the cumulative rise in US Consumer price inflation, gold rose by 119%, which equates to annualized real return of 2.2%.

World's largest gold mines

Grasberg Mine (Indonesia), Cortez (U.S.A.),Yanacocha (Peru), Goldstrike (U.S.A.), Veladero (Argentina), Vaal River (South Africa), The Super Pit ( Kalgoorlie-Boulder, WA, Australia), West Wits (South Africa), Lagunas Norte (Peru), Boddington mine (Boddington, WA, Australia). Run by Newmont, the Boddington gold mine is actually one of Australia's newest gold mines, beginning production in 2009.  At the end of 2010 it had reserves of 20 million ounces of gold and 2.4 billion pounds of copper.  It produced 741,000 ounces of gold in 2011.

Gold-mining countries

Gold is mined in around 90 countries worldwide. Some of the countries that historically have been top producers continue to be so, including Australia, Canada, the USA and South Africa. But China is now the world’s top producer, having increased productivity significantly since 2005. In 2011, Kazakhstan entered the top 20 of gold-mining countries for the first time.

Consumption       

India is the world's largest single consumer of gold, as Indians buy about 25% of the world's gold, purchasing approximately 800 tonnes of gold every year, mostly for jewelry. India is also the largest importer of gold; in 2008, India imported around 400 tonnes of gold. Indian households hold 18,000 tonnes of gold which represents 11% of the global stock and worth more than $950 billion.

Sweet Stevia

Sugar Leaf... Really this is wonderful gift from the nature. Stevia is an herb found in South America (specifically

Paraguay) that has been used as a natural sweetener for at least 1500 years. The Stevia rebaudiana is commonly known as sweet leaf, sugar leaf, or simply Stevia. This is widely grown for its sweet leaves. Stevia and Sunflower belong to asteraceae family. The sweet herb Stevia is becoming a major source of natural sweetener as an alternate of sugar. It is rapidly replacing the chemical sweetener like Splenda, Saccharine and Aspartame. The leaves of the stevia rebaudiana plant have zero calories, carbs and a zero glycemic index. It is also about 30 times sweeter than table sugar. Studies have shown that these leaves also contain other nutrients such as protein, fiber, carbs, iron, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, vitamins A and C, and other oils as well. The sweet glycosides in the leaves do not break down in heat, which makes this a desirable sweetener to use in cooking/baking.

Stevia has been around for many years, and is probably one of the safest sweeteners on the market. Since it boasts a zero glycemic index, it is safe for even diabetics and hypoglycemic to ingest. People with weight problems, blood pressure or blood sugar problems can generally use this sweetener without any problem. Since our body cannot metabolize the sweet glycosides from the leaves, no calories are absorbed from the sweetener. Research shows that Stevia can help to regulate and balance blood sugar. Other studies have shown that Stevia can help to lower blood pressure, without affecting normal blood pressure. It also can prevent growth/reproduction of certain bad bacteria that can cause cavities and gum disease. People have reported significant oral health improvement when adding Stevia concentrate to their toothpaste or using it as a mouthwash when diluted with water. Other reported benefits of Stevia use are improved digestion, GI function, soothing upset stomachs and quicker recovery from illness.

Stevia is considered to be a great aid in weight loss, because it has no calories, and also can curb cravings for fatty foods and sweets. Hunger pains are reduced when 10-15 drops of Stevia concentrate are ingested about 20 minutes before eating. Evidence shows that Stevia may actually “reset” the hunger signals in our bodies by interrupting the pathway between the hypothalamus (controls body temperature, hunger, thirst, sleep, and fatigue) and the stomach. Scientists that have studied Stevia have concluded that it is safe for human consumption. It has been proven safe by the US FDA and World Health Organization. It is a safe, healthy alternative to synthetic food sweeteners.

Stevia is an herb and it's a very important one these days because the sweeteners that we have, the synthetic sweeteners, are not very healthy for us. Stevia is a plant indigenous to South America in the area of Paraguay and parts of Brazil used by the local Guarani Indians as a sweetening agent.

The availability of stevia varies from country to country. In a few countries, it has been available as a sweetener for decades or centuries; for example, stevia is widely used as a sweetener in Japan where it has been available for decades. In some countries, stevia is restricted or banned. In other countries, health concerns and political controversies have limited its availability; for example, the United States banned stevia in the early 1990s unless labeled as a supplement, but in 2008 approved rebaudioside-A extract as a food additive. Over the years, the number of countries in which stevia is available as a sweetener has been increasing.

WHO Evaluation: In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) performed a thorough evaluation of recent experimental studies of stevioside and steviols conducted on animals and humans, and concluded that "stevioside and rebaudioside A are not genotoxic in vitro or in vivo. The report also found no evidence of carcinogenic activity. Furthermore, the report noted that "stevioside has shown some evidence of pharmacological effects in patients with hypertension or with type-2 diabetes but concluded that further study was required to determine proper dosage. The WHO's Joint Experts Committee on Food Additives has approved, based on long-term studies, an acceptable daily intake of steviol glycoside of up to 4 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.

There are two compounds in stevia leaves 1.) Stevioside(10%-20%) and 2.) Rebaudioside-A(1-3%). The Stevioside is stable at 100 °C this is main advantage of Steviocide over other sweetener.

Growing stevia without land

Just because you live within the confines of an apartment or condominium doesn't mean you can't enjoy the benefits of stevia farming. This versatile plant can be grown either in pots on your balcony or any sunny spot, or else in a hydroponic unit. Stevia plants also do quite well in "container gardens." A 10" to 12" diameter container filled with a lightweight growing mix is an ideal size for each plant. A little mulch on the top will help retain the moisture in the shallow root zone. A properly fertilized hydroponic unit or container garden can provide you with as much stevia as an outdoor garden, if not more.

Great Alternative

The Diabetes Pandemic is around.The International Diabetes Federation's atlas shows that diabetes now affects a staggering 246 million people worldwide, with 46% of all those affected in the 35-49 age group.The global prevalence of diabetes will go up from 8.6% in 2012 to 9.8 % in 2030 and the numbers of people affected with diabetes will go up from 285 million to 435 million.India leads the global top ten countries in terms of the highest number of people with diabetes with a current figure of approximately 50 million which is expected to rise to about 87 million in 2030,India has therefore ,been labelled as the "diabetes capital of the world ".It is also startling that by 2025,every 5th person with diabetes in the world would be an Indian. So Stevia absolutely a solution to overcome the disease.

Tech-Race

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Technology defines warfare. Air warfare was not even possible before the twentieth century, save for the vulnerable and inefficient reconnaissance balloons that were pioneered in Europe and America in the nineteenth century. In the twenty-first century, air warfare ranges from strategic bombing to close air support of ground troops to dog fights for air superiority to pilotless drones that carry the eyes and ears, and sometimes the ordnance, of operators hundreds, even thousands, of miles away. The U.S. boasts a missile defense installation that can stop the unstoppable, an intercontinental ballistic missile. Space-faring nations flirt with anti-satellite weapons launched from earth and even the prospect of space-based weapons to fight one another and threaten the earth below.

Ballistic missile

A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flight path with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. To date, ballistic missiles have been propelled during powered flight by chemical rocket engines of various types.

V-2:The first ballistic missile was the A-4, commonly known as the V-2 rocket, developed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s under direction of Wernher von Braun. The first successful launch of a V-2 was on October 3, 1942 and began operation on September 6, 1944 against Paris, followed by an attack on London two days later. By the end of World War II, May 1945, over 3,000 V-2s had been launched.

A total of 30 nations have deployed operational ballistic missiles. Development continues, with around 100 ballistic missile flight tests (not including those of the US) in 2007, mostly by China, Iran and the Russian Federation. In 2010 the US and Russian governments signed a treaty to reduce their inventory of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) over a seven-year period (to 2017) to 1550 units each.

A ballistic missile trajectory consists of three parts: the powered flight portion, the free-flight portion which constitutes most of the flight time, and the re-entry phase where the Ballistic missiles can be launched from fixed sites or mobile launchers, including vehicles (transporter erector launchers, TELs), aircraft, ships and submarines.  Missiles can be propelled by either liquid-fueled or solid-fueled rocket engines, solid fuel is preferred for military uses because it is less likely to explode and can be kept ready-loaded for quick launch. Such engines commonly propel tactical guided missiles—i.e., missiles intended for use within the immediate battle area—toward their targets at twice the speed of sound. Strategic missiles (weapons designed to strike targets far beyond the battle area) are either of the cruise or ballistic type. Cruise missiles are jet-propelled at subsonic speeds throughout their flights, while ballistic missiles are rocket-powered only in the initial (boost) phase of flight, after which they follow an arcing trajectory to the target. As gravity pulls the ballistic warhead back to Earth, speeds of several times the speed of sound are reached.

The guidance system is the most important and sophisticated part of the missile. In tactical missiles, electronic sensors locate the target by detecting energy emitted or reflected from it. For example, heat-seeking missiles carry infrared sensors that allow them to “home” onto the hot exhaust of jet engines. Anti radiation missiles home onto radar emissions, while one type of optically homing missile may “lock” onto an image of the target that is captured by a television camera. Upon receiving information through its sensor, the guidance system relays instructions for course correction to the control mechanism through some type of autopilot contained within the missile or through commands transmitted from the launch platform.

Ballistic missiles contain some type of inertial guidance system, which compares the missile’s actual speed and position to the positions that it must assume in order to hit the target. The guidance system then generates correcting commands to the control system. Inertial guidance has become so accurate that the United States’ MX Peacekeeper ballistic missile, with a range of more than 6,000 miles (more than 9,650 km), has a 50-percent chance of delivering its 10 nuclear warheads within 400 feet (120 m) of their target.

Missile types:

Trident II SLBM launched by ballistic missile submarine.

Ballistic missiles can vary widely in range and use, and are often divided into categories based on range. Various schemes are used by different countries to categorize the ranges of ballistic missiles:

• Tactical ballistic missile: Range between about 150 km and 300 km

• Battlefield range ballistic missile (BRBM): Range less than 100 km

• Theatre ballistic missile (TBM): Range between 300 km and 3,500 km

• Short-range ballistic missile (SRBM): Range 1,000 km or less

• Medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM): Range between 1,000 km and 3,500 km

• Intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) or long-range ballistic missile (LRBM): Range between 3,500 km and 5,500 km

• Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM): Range greater than 5500 km

• Submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM): Launched from ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), all current designs have intercontinental range.

Intercontinental ballistic missile: A Minuteman III ICBM test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, United States.

ICBMs are differentiated by having greater range and speed than other ballistic missiles: intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs),medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs), short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs)—these shorter range ballistic missiles are known collectively as theatre ballistic missiles. There is no single, standardized definition of what ranges would be categorized as intercontinental, intermediate, medium, or short. Additionally, ICBMs are generally considered to be nuclear only; although several conceptual designs of conventionally armed missiles have been considered, the launch of such a weapon would be such a threat that it would demand a nuclear response, eliminating any military value of such a weapon.

Modern ICBMs typically carry multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of which carries a separate nuclear warhead, allowing a single missile to hit multiple targets. MIRV was an outgrowth of the rapidly shrinking size and weight of modern warheads and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties which imposed limitations on the number of launch vehicles (SALT I  and SALT II). It has also proved to be an "easy answer" to proposed deployments of ABM systems—it is far less expensive to add more warheads to an existing missile system than to build an ABM system capable of shooting down the additional warheads; hence, most ABM system proposals have been judged to be impractical. The first operational ABM systems were deployed in the U.S. during 1970s. Safeguard ABM facility was located in North Dakota and was operational from 1975–1976. The USSR deployed its Galosh ABM system around Moscow in the 1970s, which remains in service. Israel deployed a national ABM system based on the Arrow missile in 1998, but it is mainly designed to intercept shorter-ranged theater ballistic missiles, not ICBMs. The U.S. Alaska-based National missile defense system attained initial operational capability in 2004.

External and cross sectional views of a Trident II D5 nuclear missile system. It is a submarine launched missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads up to 8,000 km (5,000 mi). Trident missiles are carried by fourteen active US Navy Ohio-class and four Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines.

ICBMs can be deployed from TELs such as the Russian Topol

• one version of the RT-2UTTH Topol M which may be deployed from a self-propelled mobile launcher, capable of moving through road less terrain, and launching a missile from any point along its route.

Many authorities say that missiles also release aluminized balloons, electronic noisemakers, and other items intended to confuse interception devices and radars.

One particular weapon developed by the Soviet Union (FOBS) had a partial orbital trajectory, and unlike most ICBMs its target could not be deduced from its orbital flight path. It was decommissioned in compliance with arms control agreements, which address the maximum range of ICBMs and prohibit orbital or fractional-orbital weapons.

China. India is known to be working on a SLBM system called the K-4 although there is no hard evidence this will come into service in the near future.

In 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed in the START I treaty to reduce their deployed ICBMs and attributed warheads. As of 2009, all five of the nations with permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council have operational long-range ballistic missile systems: all except China have operational submarine-launched missiles, and Russia, the United States and China also have land-based ICBMs (the US' missiles are silo-based, China and Russia have both silo and road-mobile missiles).

Israel is believed to have deployed a road mobile nuclear ICBM, the Jericho III, which entered service in 2008; an upgraded version is in development.

India successfully test fired Agni V, with a strike range of more than 5,000 km (3,100 mi), claiming entry into the ICBM club. It is speculated by some intelligence agencies that North Korea is developing an ICBM. North Korea successfully put a satellite into space on 12 December 2012 using the 32-metre-tall (105 ft) Unha-3 rocket. The United States claimed that the launch was in fact a way to test an ICBM. (See Timeline of first orbital launches by country). Most countries in the early stages of developing ICBMs have used liquid propellants, with the known exceptions being the Indian Agni-V, the planned South African RSA-4 ICBM and the now in service Israeli Jericho 3.