Guided Missiles

Missiles are used as weapons since they are self propelled projectiles. The word has its roots in Latin which means ‘to send’. The first picture that anyone can draw of missiles is of the ones used during the World War II by the Nazis of Germany. The ones that they had used were the guided missiles which had an auto pilot which kept the missile flying in a pre specified route. In military language, the missile denotes guided weapon whereas rockets are considered unguided weapons.

Some of the components of guided missiles are Guidance systems, Targeting systems, Flight systems, engine and warheads. These are basically the different parts of a missile. The guidance systems are used to guide the missile to move along a specific path. It can be done by using radiations, by attaching a TV camera etc. The guidance systems are categorized into different categories depending on the type of targets. The targets are either fixed or moving. Thus, the guidance systems could either be Go-Onto-Target (GOT) or Go-Onto-Location-in-Space (GOLIS).

There are three components in GOT: the target tracker, the missile tracker and the guidance computer. The Navigational Guidance is a type of guidance system which has no target tracker.

The targeting systems are useful when you know the location where the target is situated. The flight system helps the missile to fly in the specified direction using the data from the guidance system and the target system. The engine for a missile could be of a single type or a mixed system of engines. The warheads are the ones that carry the explosives and are of sharp shapes to destroy hard targets.

Guided missiles are generally of two types. They are either surface missiles or air missiles. These are further divided into various categories depending upon the type of the target and the range of the missiles. The surface to surface missiles could be one of the following types – Ballistic, Cruise, Anti ship, or Anti tank. The surface to air missiles could be Anti aircraft or Anti ballistic. There is also air to air and anti satellite missiles available.

The anti satellite missiles can be launched by a plane platform or by an aircraft. Not many tests have been done in this field till date. The Soviet RS-82 rockets were the air to air missiles. They were tested during the Battle of Khalkhin which was fought in 1939. The US Navy’s missile AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM 4- Falcon were very famous guided missiles during the early 1950’s. Air to air missiles differs considerably in their sizes. They could be either very huge as the ones launched by the helicopters or the ones which are long ranged.

A missile can be guided in various ways. Inertial guidance, Preset guidance, terrestrial guidance and celestial guidance are some of the ways in which a missile can be guided.

- P. Asha Ritu.

Tags: guided missiles, long range missiles, missiles, rockets, weapons

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