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A land-attack missile (LAM) is a naval surface-to-surface missile that is capable of effectively attacking targets ashore, unlike specialized anti-ship missiles, which are optimized for striking other ships. Some dual-role missiles are suitable for both missions.
Like long-range anti-ship missiles, land-attack missiles are usually turbojet or turbofan powered cruise missiles. To prevent early detection and counter-measures, they usually fly near the ground at very low altitude, employing terrain-following techniques, either with terrain-following radar or with precise navigation system, like GPS, combined with a stored map of obstacles and ground elevation data (TERCOM).
Land-attack missiles are usually programmed before launch to follow a set of way-points up to the target. Terminal guidance can be done with active radar homing, passive radar or electronic warfare support measures, infrared homing or optical guidance, or the (fixed) target was predesignated with as final way-point.
Some missiles allow mid-course updates after launch and some may even send information back to the launch platform or other units.
Name | Origin | Maximum Range |
---|---|---|
3M22 Zircon | Russia | 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) |
3M-51 Alfa | Russia | 250 kilometres (160 mi) |
3M-54 Kalibr | Russia | 4,500 kilometres (2,800 mi) |
BGM-109 Tomahawk | United States | 1,666 kilometres (1,035 mi) [1] |
BrahMos | India / Russia | 700 kilometres (430 mi) (Surface-launched version) |
BrahMos-II | India / Russia | 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) |
CJ-10 | China | 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) |
CJ-100 | China | 2,000–3,000 kilometres (1,200–1,900 mi) |
Hermes (missile) | Russia | 100 kilometres (62 mi) |
Hongniao | China | 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) |
Hyunmoo-3 | South Korea | 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) (Hyunmoo-3C) |
Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept | United States | >560 kilometres (350 mi) [2] [3] |
Hsiung Feng IIE | Taiwan | >1,200 kilometres (750 mi) [4] |
Hsiung Feng III | Taiwan | 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) |
Otomat Mk/2E | Italy | 360 kilometres (220 mi) |
Kh-59 | Russia | 550 kilometres (340 mi) |
Joint Strike Missile | Norway/ United States | 555 kilometres (345 mi) |
MdCN | France | 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) |
P-800 Oniks | Russia | 800 kilometres (500 mi) |
RBS15 | Sweden | >300 kilometres (190 mi) |
RK-55 / S-10 | Russia | 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) |
Wan Chien | Taiwan | 300 kilometres (190 mi) [5] |
YJ-12 | China | 546 kilometres (339 mi) |
YJ-18 | China | 540 kilometres (340 mi) |
YJ-62 | China | 400 kilometres (250 mi) |
Yun Feng | Taiwan | 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) |
The TomahawkLand Attack Missile (TLAM) is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is primarily used by the United States Navy and Royal Navy in ship and submarine-based land-attack operations.
The AGM-114 Hellfire is an American air-to-ground missile (AGM) first developed for anti-armor use, later developed for precision drone strikes against other target types, especially high-value targets. It was originally developed under the name Heliborne laser, fire-and-forget missile, which led to the colloquial name "Hellfire" ultimately becoming the missile's formal name. It has a multi-mission, multi-target precision-strike ability and can be launched from multiple air, sea, and ground platforms, including the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper. The Hellfire missile is the primary 100-pound (45 kg) class air-to-ground precision weapon for the armed forces of the United States and many other nations. It has also been fielded on surface platforms in the surface-to-surface and surface-to-air roles.
An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A large number of other anti-ship missiles use infrared homing to follow the heat that is emitted by a ship; it is also possible for anti-ship missiles to be guided by radio command all the way.
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft, ground targets or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft system; in modern armed forces, missiles have replaced most other forms of dedicated anti-aircraft weapons, with anti-aircraft guns pushed into specialized roles.
An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft. AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid fueled but sometimes liquid fueled. Ramjet engines, as used on the Meteor, are emerging as propulsion that will enable future medium- to long-range missiles to maintain higher average speed across their engagement envelope.
Missile guidance refers to several methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missile's target accuracy is a critical factor for its effectiveness. Guidance systems improve missile accuracy by improving its Probability of Guidance (Pg).
The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile in use by the German, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, South Korean, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Mexican, UAE, and United States Navies. It was originally intended and used primarily as a point-defense weapon against anti-ship missiles. As its name indicates, RAM rolls as it flies. The missile must roll during flight because the RF tracking system uses a two-antenna interferometer that can measure phase interference of the electromagnetic wave in one plane only. The rolling interferometer permits the antennas to look at all planes of incoming energy. In addition, because the missile rolls, only one pair of steering canards is required. As of 2005, it is the only U.S. Navy missile to operate in this manner.
Active radar homing (ARH) is a missile guidance method in which a missile contains a radar transceiver and the electronics necessary for it to find and track its target autonomously. The NATO brevity code for an air-to-air active radar homing missile launch is fox three.
An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common propulsion systems for air-to-surface missiles are rocket motors, usually with shorter range, and slower, longer-range jet engines. Some Soviet-designed air-to-surface missiles are powered by ramjets, giving them both long range and high speed.
The Nimrod is a long-range air-to-surface missile developed by Israel Aerospace Industries. While designed for mainly anti-tank warfare, it provides standoff strike ability against a variety of point targets such as armoured personnel carriers (APCs), ships, bunkers, personnel concentrations, and guerrillas.
The Raduga K-10S was a Soviet supersonic anti-ship missile that was usually nuclear-armed, designed by MKB Raduga. Its development began in 1955, and it entered service with the Soviet armed forces in 1961. The Kipper missile was a very large one, approximately the size of a small jet fighter, because of the rather primitive state of anti-ship missile technology in the 1950s and 1960s. This missile was never used in combat anywhere.
The Sky Bow, or Tien Kung, are a series of surface-to-air anti-ballistic missile and anti-aircraft defense systems developed by Taiwan. The TK-2 and TK-3 are in service with the Military of the Republic of China.
The RIM-66 Standard MR (SM-1MR/SM-2MR) is a medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM), with a secondary role as an anti-ship missile, developed for the United States Navy (USN). A member of the Standard Missile family of weapons, the SM-1 was developed as a replacement for the RIM-2 Terrier and RIM-24 Tartar that were deployed in the 1950s on a variety of USN ships. The RIM-67 Standard (SM-1ER/SM-2ER) is an extended range version of this missile with a solid rocket booster stage.
Guidance, navigation and control is a branch of engineering dealing with the design of systems to control the movement of vehicles, especially, automobiles, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft. In many cases these functions can be performed by trained humans. However, because of the speed of, for example, a rocket's dynamics, human reaction time is too slow to control this movement. Therefore, systems—now almost exclusively digital electronic—are used for such control. Even in cases where humans can perform these functions, it is often the case that GNC systems provide benefits such as alleviating operator work load, smoothing turbulence, fuel savings, etc. In addition, sophisticated applications of GNC enable automatic or remote control.
The RIM-174 Standard Extended Range Active Missile (ERAM), or Standard Missile 6 (SM-6), is a missile in current production for the United States Navy. It was designed for extended-range anti-air warfare (ER-AAW) purposes, providing capability against fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, anti-ship cruise missiles in flight, both over sea and land, and terminal ballistic missile defense. It can also be used as a high-speed anti-ship missile. The missile uses the airframe of the earlier SM-2ER Block IV (RIM-156A) missile, adding the active radar homing seeker from the AIM-120C AMRAAM in place of the semi-active seeker of the previous design. This will improve the capability of the Standard missile against highly agile targets and targets beyond the effective range of the launching vessels' target illumination radars. Initial operating capability was planned for 2013 and was achieved on 27 November 2013. The SM-6 is not meant to replace the SM-2 series of missiles but will serve alongside and provide extended range and increased firepower. It was approved for export in January 2017.
ALAS is a Serbian long-range multipurpose wire guided missile system developed by the private company EdePro and the state-owned Yugoimport SDPR. The ALAS missile system was developed primarily for missions against tanks, armored vehicles, fortifications, command posts, low-flying helicopters, coastal ships, industrial facilities and bridges. It can be deployed by any suitable platform including helicopters, armored vehicles, small ships and infantry. The guidance system is based on video/infrared technology, with the missile connected to the launcher by a fiber-optic cable. The ALAS flies at low altitude and has small radar and infrared (heat) signatures due to using a turbofan motor instead of a turbojet. In recent years, the ALAS platform has found a secondary use as a UAV.
An anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is a military ballistic missile system designed to hit a warship at sea.
The SSM-700K C-Star (Haeseong) is a ship-launched sea-skimming surface-to-surface anti-ship cruise missile developed by the South Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD), LIG Nex1 and the Republic of Korea Navy in 2003. The missiles are deployed on KDX-II and KDX-III destroyers as of 2006, each carrying 8 and 16 of the missiles respectively, and on Ulsan-class frigates.
The AGM-158C LRASM is a stealth air launch anti-ship cruise missile developed for the United States Air Force and United States Navy by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The LRASM was intended to pioneer more sophisticated autonomous targeting capabilities than the U.S. Navy's current Harpoon anti-ship missile, which has been in service since 1977.
The HQ-17 is an all-weather, low to medium altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system derived from the Tor-M1.