Implications of defenses against tactical ballistic missiles

The growing number of short- to medium-range ballistic missiles (SMBMs) in the inventories of many smaller states that have had recent or less recent armed conflicts with one another has been a source of concern to many countries. Inevitably this concern over ballistic missiles had been linked to their use as delivery vehicles for {open_quotes}weapons of mass destruction{close_quotes}, a category that now includes nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. But it can be argued that this categorization is not particularly useful as a point of departure for discussions of ballistic missile defense (BMD) against SMBMs.