Cruise Missile

The Cruise Missile, or Cruise, has the shortest range of any of the Missiles. It has the fastest build time, and can be built twice at once through Research. It can be used for standard attacks just like any other missile but its short range often limits who you can attack.

Defense
The most important aspect of the Cruise Missile might be its ability to defend against incoming enemy warheads. By using quick defend or shooting down the rocket manually, you can protect your nations from being damaged or destroyed. With Research, you can have your nations automatically defend themselves and each other, which they will do as long as they have a Cruise.

It is not recommended to rely solely on one method of defending with Cruise Missiles, Automatic Defense only works if nations have a Cruise in the Silos and they will only defend nearby nations. Similarly, Quick Defend is not always reliable. The warhead that gets targeted when using Quick Defend will always be the closest one to the selected nation. This might mean you shoot down a "flyover" missile, targeted for a different superpower. Be careful when defending with quick defend because you can break your pacts, and make a previously neutral Superpower hostile.