A guided missile is a self-propelled unmanned aerial weapon that can be directed in flight to change its flight path. In typical usage the term "missile" refers to guided weapons, and "rockets" to unguided ones. The differences between the two may be fairly minor other than the guidance system.
The first missiles to be used operationally were a series of German missiles of WW2. During World War II, Germany developed many Missile systems These included the first Cruise missile, the first Short-range ballistic missile Most famous of these are the V1 and V2, both of which used a simple mechanical autopilot to keep the missile flying along a pre-chosen route. The Fieseler Fi 103, better known as V-1 (German Vergeltungswaffe 1 was an early Cruise missile used during World War Two See also Vergeltungswaffe The V-2 rocket ( Vergeltungswaffe 2 was the first Ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve An autopilot is a mechanical electrical or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being Less well known were a series of anti-shipping and anti-aircraft missiles, typically based on a simple radio control system directed by the operator. Radio control (often abbreviated to R/C or simply RC) is the use of radio signals to remotely control a device
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Basic roles
Ballistic missiles
After the boost-stage ballistic missiles follow a trajectory mainly determined by ballistics, the guidance is for relatively small deviations from that. A ballistic missile is a Missile that follows a Sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering a warhead to a predetermined target Trajectory is the path a moving object follows through space The object might be a Projectile or a Satellite, for example Ballistics ( gr βάλλειν ('ba'llein' "throw" is the science of Mechanics that deals with the motion behavior and effects of Projectiles
The V2 had demonstrated that a ballistic missile could deliver a warhead to a target city with no possibility of interception, and the introduction of nuclear weapons meant it could do useful damage when it arrived. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. The accuracy of these systems was fairly poor, but post-war development by most military forces improved the basic inertial platform concept to the point where it could be used as the guidance system on ICBMs flying thousands of miles. An Inertial Navigation System (INS is a Navigation aid that uses a Computer and motion sensors to continuously track the position orientation and Velocity Today the ballistic missile represents the only strategic deterrent in most military forces; the USAFs continued support of manned bombers is considered by some to be entirely political in nature. This article refers to deterrent theories of punishment For the legal theory of justice see Deterrence (legal.
Cruise missiles
The V1 had been successfully intercepted during the war, but this did not make the cruise missile concept entirely useless. The Fieseler Fi 103, better known as V-1 (German Vergeltungswaffe 1 was an early Cruise missile used during World War Two A cruise missile is a guided Missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system usually a Jet engine, to allow After the war, the US deployed a small number of nuclear-armed cruise missiles in Germany, but these were considered to be of limited usefulness. Continued research into much longer ranged and faster versions led to the US's Navaho missile, and its Soviet counterparts, the Burya and Buran cruise missile. The North American SM-64 Navaho was a Supersonic intercontinental Cruise missile project built by North American Aviation. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The Burya ("Storm" in Russian Буря was a trisonic intercontinental Cruise missile designed by the Lavochkin design bureau (designation La-350 The Buran Cruise missile, designation RSS-40, was a Soviet intercontinental cruise missile capable of carrying a 3500 kg nuclear warhead However, these were rendered largely obsolete by the ICBM, and none was used operationally. Acorrding too, shorter-range developments have become widely used as highly accurate attack systems, such as the US Tomahawk missile or the German Taurus missile. The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM is a long-range all-weather subsonic cruise missile TAURUS KEPD 350 is a German / Swedish air-launched Cruise missile, manufactured by TAURUS Systems GmbH and used by Germany and Spain
Anti-shipping
Another major German missile development project was the anti-shipping class (such as the Fritz X and Henschel Hs 293), intended to stop any attempt at a cross-channel invasion. Fritz X was the most common name for a German air-launched Anti-ship missile, used during World War II. The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German anti-shipping Guided missile: a radio-controlled Glide bomb with a rocket engine slung underneath However the British were able to render their systems useless by jamming their radios, and missiles with wire guidance were not ready by D-Day. A wire-guided missile is a Missile that is guided by signals sent to it via thin wires connected to both the missile and its guidance mechanism which is located somewhere near D-Day may also refer to Decimal Day in the United Kingdom. D-Day is a term often used in Military parlance to denote After the war the anti-shipping class slowly developed, and became a major class in the 1960s with the introduction of the low-flying turbojet powered cruise missiles known as "sea-skimmers". These became famous during the Falklands War when an Argentine Exocet missile sank a Royal Navy destroyer. The Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the The Exocet is a French -built Anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels submarines and airplanes The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service)
Anti-aircraft
By 1944 US and British airforces were sending huge airfleets over occupied Europe, increasing the pressure on the Luftwaffe day and night fighter forces. ( German 'luftvafe is a generic German term for an Air force. The Germans were keen to get some sort of useful ground-based anti-aircraft system into operation. Several systems were under development, but none had reached operational status before the war's end. The US Navy also started missile research to deal with the Kamikaze threat. ( is a word of Japanese origin which in English usually refers to the Suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against By 1950 systems based on this early research started to reach operational service, including the US Army's Nike Ajax, the Navy's "3T's" (Talos, Terrier, Tartar), and soon followed by the Soviet S-25 Berkut and S-75 Dvina and French and British systems. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. Project Nike was a US Army project proposed in May 1945 by Bell Labs, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system The S-25 Berkut (С-25 «Беркут» "Berkut" means Golden eagle in English is a surface-to-air Guided missile, the first operational
Air-to-air
German experience in WWII demonstrated that destroying a large aircraft was quite difficult, and they had invested considerable effort into air-to-air missile systems to do this. An air-to-air missile ( AAM) is a guided Missile fired from an Aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft Their Me262's jets often carried R4M rockets, and other types of "bomber destroyer" aircraft had unguided rockets as well. In the post-war period the R4M served as the pattern for a number of similar systems, used by almost all interceptor aircraft during the 1940s and '50s. System (from Latin systēma, in turn from Greek systēma is a set of interacting or interdependent Entities, real or abstract Lacking guidance systems, such rockets had to be carefully aimed at relatively close range to successfully hit the target. The US Navy and USAF began deploying guided missiles in the early 1950s, most famous being the US Navy's AIM-9 Sidewinder and USAF's AIM-4 Falcon. The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range Air-to-air missile carried by Fighter aircraft and recently certain gunship helicopters The Hughes AIM-4 Falcon was the first operational guided Air-to-air missile of the United States Air Force. These systems have continued to advance, and modern air warfare consists almost entirely of missile firing. In the Falklands War technically inferior British Harriers were able to defeat faster Argentinian opponents using AIM-9G missiles provided by the United States as the conflict began. The Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout The latest heat-seeking designs can lock onto a target from various angles, not just from behind, where the heat signature from the engines is strongest. Other types rely on radar guidance (either on-board or "painted" by the launching aircraft).
Anti-tank
By the end of WWII all forces had widely introduced unguided rockets using HEAT warheads as their major anti-tank weapon (see Panzerfaust, Bazooka). PARS 3 LR in German service also known as TRIGAT-LR (Third Generation AntiTank Long Range and AC 3G in French, is a currently (2007 in development Fire-and-forget is a third-generation method of Missile guidance The German Army (Deutsches Heer heɐ) is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Panzerfaust (plural Panzerfäuste, "armored fist" or "tank fist" was an inexpensive recoilless German Anti-tank The bazooka is a man-portable Anti-armor rocket launcher made famous during World War II. However these had a limited useful range of a 100 m or so, and the Germans were looking to extend this with the use of a missile using wire guidance, the X-7. A wire-guided missile is a Missile that is guided by signals sent to it via thin wires connected to both the missile and its guidance mechanism which is located somewhere near After the war this became a major design class in the later 1950s, and by the 1960s had developed into practically the only non-tank anti-tank system in general use. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt, the 9M14 Malyutka (aka "Sagger") man-portable anti-tank missile proved potent against Israeli tanks. The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War (מלחמת יום הכיפורים transliterated: Milkhemet Yom HaKipurim or מלחמת יום The 9K11 Malyutka ( Russian: Малютка little or tiny baby is the ( NATO reporting name: AT-3 Sagger is an MCLOS wire-guided While other guidance systems have been tried, the basic reliability of wire-guidance means this will remain the primary means of controlling anti-tank missile in the near future.
Anti-ballistic
Like most missiles, the Arrow missile and MIM-104 Patriot for defense against short-range missiles, carry explosives. An anti-ballistic missile (ABM is a Missile designed to counter Ballistic missiles (a missile for Missile defense) The Arrow "Interceptor" (טיל חץ /til xɛts/) ABM is a theater missile defense (TMD system it is the first missile developed by The MIM-104 Patriot is a Surface-to-air missile (SAM system the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied nations
However, in the case of a large closing speed, a projectile without explosives is used, just a collision is sufficient to destroy the target. A projectile is any object propelled through space by the exertion of a force which ceases after launch A collision is an isolated event in which two or more bodies (colliding bodies exert relatively strong forces on each other for a relatively short time See Missile Defense Agency for the following systems being developed:
- Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI)
- Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (Aegis BMD) - a SM-3 missile with Lightweight Exo-Atmospheric Projectile (LEAP) Kinetic Warhead (KW)
Anti-satellite weapon (ASAT)
Also the proposed Brilliant Pebbles defense system would use kinetic energy collisions without explosives. The Missile Defense Agency ( MDA) is the section of the United States government's Department of Defense responsible for developing a layered defense The Kinetic Energy Interceptor ( KEI) is a planned US Missile defense program whose goal is to design develop and deploy Kinetic energy -based The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System is a United States Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency program developed to provide a last line of defense Anti-satellite weapons (ASATs are Space weapons designed to destroy Satellites for strategic military purposes The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI was a proposal by US President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect
Guidance systems
Missile guidance systems generally fall into a number of basic classes, each one associated with a particular role. Modern electronics has allowed systems to be mixed on a single airframe, dramatically increasing the capabilities of the missiles.
See the main article at Missile guidance for details of the types of missile guidance systems.
See also
- Missile designation
- List of missiles
- Pursuit guidance
- Aeroprediction
- Trajectory optimization
- Proportional navigation
- GPS/INS
- Skid-to-turn
- Center of Pressure
Dictionary
guided missile
-noun
- An unmanned, self-propelled vehicle that travels through the air to deliver a warhead to a predetermined point, keeping itself on course by making corrections via its control surfaces.
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