The launch of a surprise attack to considerably weaken or destroy an adversary's military installations or nuclear forces and thus severely reduce its ability to attack or retaliate.

the initial use of nuclear weapons to attack a country that also has nuclear weapons; considered feasible only when the attacker can destroy the other country's ability to retaliate; "the Pakistani president promised no first strike against India"

a nuclear attack against an enemy that is designed to eliminate the possibility of its being able to make second strike (156)

An act of war intended to deny the target its defenses, usually by surprise or swiftness, such that effective defense cannot be employed. Prenatal child-killing accomplishes this by pre-empting the rights normally accorded to human individuals after birth. Nowhere is this intent clearer than in partial birth abortion.

a massive nuclear attack launched before an enemy has used nuclear weapons. Flashburn-caused by exposure to a burst of thermal radiation, the intense light and heat released by nuclear explosion.

In nuclear strategy, first strike capability is a country's ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation. The preferred methodology is to attack the opponent's launch facilities and storage depots first, in an overwhelming surprise attack -- hence the name. The strategy is called counterforce.

Col. Abe Ellis takes the new starship Apollo on a first strike against a Replicator planet, but when his mission goes wrong, Weir must take radical action to save Atlantis.

First Strike is a government-funding metahuman team employed by S.H.A.D.E. and created by D.C. Comics. They made their first appearance in Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #3.

First Strike is an album by Def Leppard. The album contains seven demo recordings. The majority of the record is comprised of five demo recordings of songs that would all be revisited and rerecorded, in sometimes very different versions, for their first album On Through the Night.