Antiballistic Weapons Systems

Antiballistic Weapons Systems are a standard class of automated weapon system employed by various nations from the 21st Century onward. Designed in the wake of the Cold War, ABWs had the explicit purpose of undermining the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction in strategic nuclear warfare and shift the balance of power in the direction of defensive advantage.

During the Third World War and even the years leading up to it, ABWs played a key role in human history. The most famous example of their use is the First Battle of the Arctic, in which the Free Market Block's Lucas Constellation and the Eurasian Soviet's Photon Curtain were tested against each other's respective ballistic missile compliments.

Antiballistic Weapons Systems were greatly advanced by many of the spin-off technologies of the Humanoid Robotics Revolution and themselves inspired feedback technologies into the military applications of robotics, most notably the development of beam weapons.

In addition to placed and mobile strategic-level ABWs, there have been examples of theater or tactical applications of the concept. Some Lorica pilots specialize in this application using customized or standard-pattern vehicles equipped with appropriate extra equipment. Most famously, the first successful application of this concept was during the Duel of Paris, in which a USWEAF Thoth Pilot shot down a short-ranged ballistic missile launched by a Eurasian Soviet Ursa Ruska Shagohod.