It has been suggested that Guided missile be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Exocet missile in flight

A missile (see also pronunciation differences) is a self-propelled, explosive projectile used as a weapon towards a target. Missile can mean several things: A missile is, in general, a projectile—that is, something thrown or otherwise propelled. ... Image File history File links Mergefrom. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Missile. ... Image File history File links Exocet http://www. ... Image File history File links Exocet http://www. ... The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, and airplanes. ... Differences in pronunciation between American English (AmE) and British English (BrE) can be divided into: differences in accent (i. ... A projectile is any object sent through space by the application of a force. ...

Etymology

The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, literally meaning "to send". For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ...

Introduction

Rocket-powered missiles are simply known as rockets if they lack post-launch guidance, and missiles or guided missiles if they have guidance and control after launch. Cruise missiles typically use some form of jet engine for propulsion. A cold (un-ignited) rocket engine test at NASA A rocket engine is a reaction engine that can be used for spacecraft propulsion as well as terrestrial uses, such as missiles. ... This article is about vehicles powered by rocket engines. ... A Tomahawk cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile which uses a lifting wing and most often a jet propulsion system to allow sustained flight. ... A Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle is tested at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, USA. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape. ...

Missiles are often used in warfare as a means of delivering destructive force (usually in the form of an explosive warhead) upon a target. Aside from explosives, other possible types of destructive missile payloads are various forms of chemical or biological agents, nuclear warheads, or simple kinetic energy (wherein the missile destroys the target by the force of striking it at high speed). Sometimes missiles are used to deliver payloads designed to break infrastructure without the harming of people. For instance, in the Persian Gulf War cruise missiles were used to deliver reels of carbon filament to electricity stations and switches, effectively disabling them by forming short circuits. For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... Dressing the wounded during a gas attack by Austin O. Spare, 1918. ... Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of any organism (bacteria, virus or other disease_causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ... The kinetic energy of an object is the extra energy which it possesses due to its motion. ... For other uses, see Iraq war (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Electricity (disambiguation). ... For alternate meanings see Short circuit (disambiguation) A short circuit (sometimes known as simply a short) is a fault whereby electricity moves through a circuit in an unintended path, usually due to a connection forming where none was expected. ...

Missiles which spend most of their trajectory in unpowered flight, and which don't use aerodynamics to alter their course, are known as ballistic missiles (because their motion is largely governed by the laws of ballistics). These are in contrast to cruise missiles, which spend most of their trajectory in powered flight. Diagram of V-2, the first ballistic missile. ... Ballistics (gr. ... A Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missile of the Luftwaffe A cruise missile is a guided missile which uses a lifting wing and most often a jet propulsion system to allow sustained flight. ...

Guided missiles

Missiles that have the ability to maneuver through the air can be guided, and are known as guided missiles. These have three key system components: It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Missile. ...

• tracking
• guidance
• flight

A tracking system locates the missile's target. This can be either a human gunner aiming a sight on the target (remotely from the missile) or an automatic tracker. Automatic trackers use radiation emanating from the target or emitted from the launch platform and reflecting back to it from the target. Passive automatic trackers use the target's inherent radiation, usually heat or light, but missiles designed to attack Command & Control posts, aircraft or guided missiles may look for radio waves. Active automatic trackers rely on the target being illuminated by radiation. The target can be "painted" with light (sometimes infrared and/or laser) or radio waves (radar) which can be detected by the missile. The radiation for the painting can originate in the missile itself or may come from a remote station (for example, a hilltop gunner can illuminate a target with a laser device and this can be used to direct an air launched guided missile). A guided bomb strikes an underground facility Missile guidance technologies of missile systems use a variety of methods to guide a missile to its intended target. ... Electromagnetic waves can be imagined as a self-propagating transverse oscillating wave of electric and magnetic fields. ... In the military: The exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission. ... For other uses, see Infrared (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Laser (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Radar (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Laser (disambiguation). ...

A guidance system takes data from the missile's tracking system and flight system and computes a flight path for the missile designed to intercept the target. It produces commands for the flight system. A guidance system is a device or group of devices used to navigate a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or other craft. ...

The flight system causes the missile to maneuver. There are two main systems: vectored thrust (for missiles that are powered throughout the guidance phase of their flight) and aerodynamic maneuvering (wings, fins, canards, etc).

There are some similarities between guided missiles and guided bombs. A guided bomb, dropped from an aircraft, is unpowered and uses aerodynamic fins for forward horizontal maneuvering while falling vertically. BOLT-117 laser guided bomb Precision-guided munitions (smart munitions or smart bombs) are self-guiding weapons intended to maximize damage to the target while minimizing collateral damage. Because the damage effects of an explosive weapon scale as a power law with distance, quite modest improvements in accuracy (and hence...

References

• Gruntman, Mike, Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, Reston, Va.: AIAA (2004), ISBN 9781563477058

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Missile

Look up missile in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• List of missiles
• List of missiles by nation
• Timeline of rocket and missile technology
• V-1 flying bomb
• V-2 rocket
• Redstone missile
• List of World War II guided missiles of Germany
• Shoulder-launched missile weapon
• Fire-and-forget