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A cruise missile's job in life is to deliver a 1,000-pound (450-kg) high-explosive bomb to a precise location -- the target. Since cruise missiles cost between $500,000 and $1,000,000 each, it's a fairly expensive way to deliver a 1,000-pound package. Ballistic missiles first came into use during World War II, when the Germans used a ballistic missile called the V-2 to attack London. British air defenses designed to stop aircraft couldn't stop the V-2s, because the rockets traveled too high into the upper atmosphere and moved too fast. The United States has deployed nine nuclear cruise missiles at one time or another. The United States Air Force's first operational surface-to-surface missile was the winged, mobile, nuclear-capable MGM-1 Matador, also similar in concept to the V-1.
Guidance and control
India is currently developing hypersonic BRAHMOS-II which is going to be the fastest cruise missile. These missiles are about the same size and weight and fly at similar speeds to the above category. The South Korean and U.S. air forces held joint air drills in Gunsan, South Korea on Friday, where they practiced ways to detect and counter enemy threats. Steve covers military aviation, missiles and space for the Aviation Week Network, based in Washington DC.
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Modern cruise missiles are capable of traveling at high subsonic, supersonic, or hypersonic speeds, are self-navigating, and are able to fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low-altitude trajectory. Tomahawks are launched vertically from ships, but they can be launched horizontally from torpedo tubes on attack submarines or from external launchers attached to a submarine’s hull. Thereafter it is powered by a turbofan engine that does not emit much heat, which makes infrared detection difficult. It can also elude detection by radar because it has a small cross section and operates at low altitudes. Once it reaches land, the Tomahawk uses inertial and terrain-contour-matching (TERCOM) radar guidance, in which a map stored on the missile’s computer is continually compared with the actual terrain to locate the missile’s position relative to the target. As the TERCOM scans the landscape, the Tomahawk missile is capable of twisting and turning like a radar-evading fighter plane, skimming the landscape at an altitude of only 30–90 metres (100–300 feet).
Tomahawk (missile)
Although the AGM-158 fell far short of the AGM-86C conventional air-launched cruise missile, the Air Force allowed the latter to be retired from service with no direct replacement in November 2019. That gap will be addressed partially by the fielding in 2024 of the AGM-158D, a new version of the JASSM with a range of up to 1,000 nm and the same radar cross section. More recent cruise missiles, including newer versions of the Tomahawk, have done away with the old navigation systems in favor of using GPS to guide themselves to a fixed target.
Guidance
The GPS system uses the military's network of GPS satellites and an onboard GPS receiver to detect its position with very high accuracy. In the category of hypersonic weapons, scramjet-powered cruise missiles are seen as a more affordable and versatile option than the larger and more expensive hypersonic glide vehicles, such as the air-launched Lockheed AGM-183A. At the conference held by CSIS, the threat from cruise missiles was discussed as a way that other countries could attack the United States that is hard to detect by employing existing, ICBM-focused measures.
This has had the effect of making an already accurate missile even more accurate—reportedly to within 32 feet of a target. The Tomahawk Block IV version, introduced in the 2010s, included a camera that could send back imagery to the missile’s controllers, allowing a missile to be re-tasked in midair if its target was already destroyed. Block Va, the latest version, adds the ability to target and attack moving ships at sea. The United States Air Force (USAF) deploys an air-launched cruise missile, the AGM-86 ALCM.
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Interceptors, like shorter-ranged Patriot missiles or longer-ranged ballistic interceptors, are often more expensive than the missiles they are intercepting. But Syria’s government has anti-aircraft weapons, which can easily shoot down drones. Cruise missiles, instead, fly faster, hit harder, and instead of hunting individuals take aim at big, fixed targets like military bases or palaces. Also, the United States has a lot of cruise missiles near Syria, and very few available drones.
North Korea tests new 'super-large warhead' and anti-ship missile - The Japan Times
North Korea tests new 'super-large warhead' and anti-ship missile.
Posted: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 02:31:00 GMT [source]
Kelsey D. Atherton is a military technology journalist who has contributed to Popular Science since 2013. He covers uncrewed robotics and other drones, communications systems, the nuclear enterprise, and the technologies that go into planning, waging, and mitigating war. But as the cruise missile is now in its fifth decade of use, there are signs it’ll need some adjustments to stay relevant on the modern battlefield. This engine weighs just 145 pounds (65 kg) and produces 600 pounds of thrust burning RJ4 fuel. The fuel load is 800 to 1,000 pounds (about 450 kg) of fuel at launch, or approximately 150 gallons (600 liters). Tomahawk Block IV missile demonstrated its moving target capability in tests conducted in February 2015.
Cruise missiles are self-propelled for the majority of their time in the air, flying in a relatively straight line and at lower altitudes thanks to a rocket propellant. Think of a ballistic missile's flight path as a large arc up and back down again, while that of a cruise missile — fired from a warship, for instance — is closer to a straight line. Unlike ballistic missiles, cruise missiles are usually categorized by intended missions and launch mode instead of maximum range. The two broadest categories are land attack cruise missiles (LACMs) and anti-shipping cruise missiles (ASCMs).
The missile’s infrared seeker expects the contrast and clutter you typically see over dry ground. The Tomahawk Block IV missile is powered by a Williams International F415 cruise turbo-fan engine and ARC MK 135 rocket motor. The two-way satellite communications are used to perform post-launch mission changes throughout the flight. The on-board camera provides imagery of the target to the commanders before the strike. The Tomahawk Block IV uses GPS navigation and a satellite data-link to continue through a pre-set course. RGM / UGM-109E Tomahawk (Block IV TLAM-E) is the latest member in the Tomahawk missile family.
The ABLs were also installed on eight Spruance-class destroyers, the four Virginia-class cruisers, and the nuclear cruiser USS Long Beach. The most common mission for cruise missiles is to attack relatively high-value targets such as ships, command bunkers, bridges and dams.[52] Modern guidance systems permit accurate attacks. Some missiles can be fitted with any of a variety of navigation systems (Inertial navigation, TERCOM, or satellite navigation). Larger cruise missiles can carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead, while smaller ones carry only conventional warheads. Unlike ballistic missiles, which arc up into space before traveling back down towards earth, cruise missiles fly close to the ground, making it hard for radar on the ground that’s pointed up at space to see them.
They were also used in Bosnia (1995), Libya (1996 and 2011), Sudan (1998), Yemen (2009), and Afghanistan (1998 and during the Afghanistan War, which began in 2001). It doesn't include the specifically anti-ship missiles whose list is separate. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dialing up his weapons demonstrations, which have included more powerful missiles aimed at the U.S. mainland and U.S. targets in the Pacific. The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by expanding their combined military training and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. assets.
Cruise missiles are renowned for dynamically altering their flight trajectory, capitalizing on both high and low altitudes. This strategic maneuver enhances their overall performance by combining the advantages of different altitudes. Typically, these missiles initiate their journey at high altitudes to extend their operational range. In this edition of HowStuffWorks, we will look at cruise missiles so that you can understand what they are, how they operate and why they are ideal for certain scenarios. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the most recent cruise missile developed was the Kalibr missile which entered production in the early 1990s and was officially inducted into the Russian arsenal in 1994. However, it only saw its combat debut on 7 October 2015, in Syria as a part of the Russian military campaign in Syria.
China can mass its best troops, ships and planes along a short geographic front and attack at the time of its choosing. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force has aimed thousands of missiles at the closest American and Japanese bases. To intervene, U.S. and Japanese forces must fight their way through these missiles as well as the PLA Navy’s submarines. The Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System (TTWCS) integrated within the ship’s systems computes the path to engage targets. The system enables the planning of new missions on board the launch vessel. TTWCS is also used to communicate with multiple missiles for reassigning the targets and redirecting the missiles in flight.
The Tomahawk family of missiles includes a number of variants, carrying different warheads. Cruise missiles deploy advanced guidance methods in the terminal phase of flight to elevate their accuracy. The Sarmat can carry up to 24 MIRVs; each MIRV carries nuclear warheads with yields ranging anywhere from hundreds of kilotons to a few megatons. Each MIRV can hit a target hundreds of kilometers away from each other, and some MIRVs will carry decoys and countermeasures, putting additional stress on defensive systems. During the opening salvos of a regional attack, military planning calls for sea-based Tomahawks to be used to compromise and suppress enemy air operations and defenses. Tomahawks may be retasked in flight, possibly circling for a period before their human handlers select another target for them to attack.
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