Common Missile
US intercontinental ballistic missile project
Common Missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile project, developed to satisfy U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force operational system requirements for both SLBM and silo-launched ICBM, defined in the 1978 commonality study.
Description
The Common Missile was designed as a four-stage solid propellant, stellar-inertial guided intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering up to six Mark 21 reentry vehicles to independent targets. It is propelled from a canister by a gas generator prior to first stage ignition. The post boost vehicle consists of a structure to house the guidance and solid propulsion systems and a platform to mount the reentry vehicles. The post boost vehicle provides the reentry vehicle spacing and deployment maneuvers. The basic dimensions, length, and diameter, were derived from submarine launcher volumetric constraints. The booster stages were sized to provide for Navy guidance access requirements at the II-III interstage and for at-sea maintenance access. The missile was designed to fill the current Trident submarine tube.
References
"Strategic Forces ·Technical Assessment Review, 31 MARCH 1983" (PDF). pp.
The public source identifies “Common Missile” as uS intercontinental ballistic missile project. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Common, Missile and intercontinental.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Common Missile”, the useful work is to connect “uS intercontinental ballistic missile project” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30250529. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1978 and 1983.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Common Missile”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Common Missile primary sources, Common Missile archive and Common research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Common Missile”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Common Missile” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.