The Arms and the Talks: A Glossary

The field of arms control is cluttered with jargon, acronyms and initials. Here is a guide to the more important and inescapable terms:

ABM: Antiballistic missile, a defensive weapon that can shoot down incoming offensive ones.

CRUISE MISSILE: A jet-powered drone that flies, or "cruises," through the atmosphere, rather than arcing into space on a ballistic trajectory, like a rocket. The cruise missile finds its way to a target by matching the terrain over which it flies against a map stored in its computerized brain. Because it is small (about 18...

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