How to Use ICBM in a Sentence

ICBM

noun
  • The pads could be used to deploy mobile air-defense missiles, electronic warfare nodes or, from some of the larger ones, road-mobile ICBM launchers, three security scholars said.
    — Reuters, NBC news, 29 May 2026
  • Katie Parks, the service’s deputy ICBM program executive officer, told the town hall that new silos could address shortcomings at some current facilities.
    — Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 29 Aug. 2025
  • In the film, several characters believe a terrorist group is behind the unattributed launch of the ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile).
    — Griff Griffin, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025
  • But soon, their typical routine is abruptly interrupted when an unidentified intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is detected.
    — Allison Degrushe, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Oct. 2025
  • No procession of tanks, no towering intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), no hypersonic glide vehicles, no transporter-erector-launchers rumbling past the cameras.
    — Will Ripley, CNN Money, 26 Feb. 2026
  • While the Ministry of Defense said the system can engage threats up to the ICBM class, the latest demonstrations reportedly involved targets in the 2,000 to 5,000-kilometer range.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 16 June 2026
  • The Kremlin confirmed successful launches of a Yars ICBM, cruise missiles from Tu-95MS bombers, and a ballistic missile from a submarine in the Barents Sea.
    — Amanda Castro, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Last September, China conducted its first test launch of an unarmed but nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) since the 1980s, during which the missile reached the South Pacific.
    — Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Tests under the Air Mobile Feasibility Program in 1974 successfully launched a Minuteman ICBM from a C-5A over the Pacific, proving the concept worked.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 28 Oct. 2025
  • By comparison, the United States’ LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM has a range of about 11,000 kilometers (6,835 miles) and is deployed with only one warhead, though it was designed to carry three.
    — Zahra Ullah, CNN Money, 13 May 2026
  • Since December 2001, there have been reports that Russia is looking at modernizing its nuclear forces with weapons that would have the range of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), yet would be able to dodge radar and avoid any anti-ballistic missile defenses.
    — David Szondy october 26, New Atlas, 26 Oct. 2025
  • Analysts have raised the possibility that North Korea’s next-generation Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), its new Hwasong-11 Ma hypersonic glide vehicle, and other advanced weapons systems will be on display.
    — Helen Regan, CNN Money, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Seoul, South Korea — Kim Jong Un on Monday watched a test of North Korea’s new high-thrust rocket engine, an event that sets the stage for Pyongyang to test its newest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-20, which state media said last week would be powered by the new rocket.
    — Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Ice dancers Ren Junfei and Xing Jianing were seen with a large toy version of China’s new DF-61 missile – a huge intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) transported on an eight-axle truck and capable of carrying nuclear weapons – at the Cup of China in Chongqing on Saturday.
    — George Ramsay, CNN Money, 28 Oct. 2025
  • China last tested its ICBM force in September 2024—its first since the 1980s—when a DF-31AG missile carrying a dummy warhead was fired toward international waters in the South Pacific, within the region's nuclear-free zone, according to a Newsweek map.
    — Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Nov. 2025
  • But some certainly stood out, including the DF-61, a huge intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) carried on an eight-axle truck that would be the PLA Rocket Force’s first new ICBM since the DF-41 was introduced at a 2019 military parade.
    — Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 3 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ICBM.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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