Space War
On 2023-10-31, the first combat engagement in history to occur outside the Earth’s atmosphere took place. LiveJournal reports in Russian, machine-translated to English below.
On October 31, 2023, humanity discovered the history of war in Space. The interception of the warhead of a Yemeni medium-range ballistic missile by an Israeli Arrow-3 missile became the first combat operation to take place outside the earth’s atmosphere.
This is also the first time that a medium-range ballistic missile has been destroyed by an anti-missile missile in a real combat situation. All previous cases of interception of ballistic missiles were interceptions of short-range ballistic missiles or generally operational-tactical ones. An intermediate-range ballistic missile is a much more difficult target because it flies faster and follows a higher trajectory. Actually, this was also the first time a medium-range ballistic missile was launched in a real combat situation.
Israeli missile defense has successfully completed the task. Yemeni missile was destroyed outside the atmosphere; her load, whatever it was, dissipated harmlessly tens of kilometers above the ground. In the confrontation between the ballistic sword and the anti-missile shield, the first round was left to the defense.
Here is more about the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system. This is video of a 2015 test launch and intercept.
While the interception is believed to have occurred below the 100 km Kármán line, the international standard for the edge of space, the incoming missile, believed to be a Burkan-2, derivative of the ancient Soviet SS-1 “Scud”, would have flown above this threshold before being intercepted on its ballistic descent toward Israel.
War in space is no longer “futuristic science fiction stuff”.