Missile: Unveiling the Secrets of Advanced Weaponry and Strategic Warfare

By Fouad Sabry

What is Missile

A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Missile

Chapter 2: Rocket-propelled grenade

Chapter 3: Anti-tank guided missile

Chapter 4: Ballistic missile

Chapter 5: Projectile

Chapter 6: R4M

Chapter 7: Ruhrstahl X-4

Chapter 8: Air-to-air missile

Chapter 9: Aerial warfare

Chapter 10: Ranged weapon

(II) Answering the public top questions about missile.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Missile.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 20, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Missile

In military parlance, a missile is a guided, self-propelled, airborne, ranging weapon, typically powered by a jet engine or rocket motor. Thus, missiles are often referred to as guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket is made guided). Missiles contain five system components: the targeting system, the guidance system, the flight system, the engine, and the warhead. Surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles (ballistic, cruise, anti-ship, anti-submarine, anti-tank, etc.), surface-to-air missiles (and anti-ballistic), air-to-air missiles, and anti-satellite weapons are types of missiles designed for specific purposes.

Airborne explosive devices without propulsion are known as shells when launched by artillery and bombs when dropped from an aircraft. Rocket artillery is the common term for unguided rocket- or jet-propelled weaponry.

Historically, the term missile refers to any projectile that is launched, fired, or pushed towards a target; this meaning is still prevalent today.

The first operational missiles were a set of weapons developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The most well-known of them were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, both of which used a mechanical autopilot to guide the missile along a predetermined flight path.

Guided missiles contain a variety of system components:

Guidance system

Targeting system

Flight system

Engine

Warhead

The most prevalent technique of missile guidance employs light, such as infrared, lasers, or radio waves, to direct the missile to its intended target. This radiation may originate from the target (such as engine heat or radio waves from an enemy radar), the missile (such as radar), or a third party (such as the launch vehicle/radar platform's or a laser designator controlled by friendly soldiers). The first two are sometimes referred to as fire-and-forget since they require no more assistance or control from the launch vehicle/platform to perform. Using TV guidance to provide visible light or infrared images in order to see the target is another option. The images may be utilized either by a human operator who guides the missile to its intended target or by a computer doing essentially the same function. In one of the more peculiar guiding technologies, a pigeon guided a missile to its target. Some missiles are equipped with a home-on-jam feature that allows them to navigate to a radar-emitting source. Numerous missiles utilize a mix of two or more strategies to improve their accuracy and engagement probability.

Targeting the missile by knowing the target's location and using a guidance system such as INS, TERCOM, or satellite guidance is another option. This guidance system guides the missile by computing a course between the current position of the missile and the position of the target. This task can either be handled clumsily by a human operator who can see both the target and the missile and direct it by cable- or radio-based remote control, or by an automatic system that can concurrently track both the target and the missile. In addition, some missiles utilize initial targeting to send them to a target area, at which point they convert to primary aiming, using radar or infrared targeting to acquire the target.

Whether a guided missile employs a targeting system, a guidance system, or both, a flying system is required. The flight system utilizes data from the targeting or guiding system to manipulate the missile in flight, allowing it to compensate for missile inaccuracy or track a moving target. Vectored thrust (for missiles that are powered throughout the guidance phase of their flight) and aerodynamic maneuvering (wings, fins, canard (aerodynamics), etc.) are the two primary methods.

The engines that propel missiles are typically rocket engines or jet engines. Rockets are typically solid-propellant for ease of maintenance and rapid deployment; however, some bigger ballistic missiles employ liquid-propellant rockets. Due to their relative simplicity and reduced frontal area, jet engines are typically utilized in cruise missiles, most frequently turbojet engines. Besides turbofans and ramjets, turbofans and ramjets are the only other popular types of jet engine propulsion, but technically any type of engine might be employed. Multiple engine stages may be present in long-range missiles, especially those launched from the ground. These stages may be identical or comprise a variety of engine types; for instance, surface-launched cruise missiles typically employ a rocket booster for launch and a jet engine for sustained flight.

Some missiles may have extra launch propulsion; for instance, the V1 was launched by a catapult and the MGM-51 Shillelagh was fired from a tank cannon (using a smaller charge than would be used for a shell).

In general, missiles have one or more explosive warheads, though other types of weapons may also be employed. The missile's warheads are its major destructive force (many missiles have extensive secondary destructive power due to the high kinetic energy of the weapon and unburnt fuel that may be on board). The majority of warheads are of the high explosive variety, frequently utilising shaped charges to destroy hardened objects with the precision of a guided missile. Submunitions, incendiaries, nuclear weapons, chemical, biological, or radioactive weapons, and kinetic energy penetrators are further types of warheads. Missiles without warheads are frequently employed for testing and training purposes.

In general, missiles are classified according to their launch platform and intended target. In the widest sense, these are either surface (land or sea) or air-based, and are further classified by range and target type (such as anti-tank or anti-ship). Few weapons are designed to attack either surface or air targets. Many weapons are designed to be launched from both the surface and the air (such as the ADATS missile). To be launched from the air or surface, the majority of weapons require some modification, such as the addition of boosters to the surface-launched variant.

After the boost phase, the trajectory of ballistic missiles is primarily dictated by ballistics. The recommendations are for relatively minor changes from that.

Generally, ballistic missiles are employed for land-attack operations. Some conventionally armed ballistic missiles, such as the MGM-140 ATACMS, are currently in use, despite their association with nuclear weapons. The V2 established that a ballistic missile could carry a payload to a target city without the risk of interception, and the introduction of nuclear warheads meant that once it arrived, it could effectively cause damage. The accuracy of these systems was relatively poor, but post-war development by the majority of military forces improved the fundamental Inertial navigation system concept to the point where it could be used as the guidance system for intercontinental ballistic missiles traveling thousands of kilometers. Today, the ballistic missile is the sole strategic deterrent for the majority of military forces; however, some ballistic missiles, such as the Russian Iskander and the Chinese DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, are being converted for conventional tasks. Generally, ballistic missiles are surface-launched from mobile launchers, silos, ships, or submarines, however air launch is theoretically conceivable with weapons like the aborted Skybolt missile.

The Russian Topol M (SS-27 Sickle B) is the fastest operational missile (7,320 meters per second).

The V1 had