I see in the news that Iran fired “ballistic” missles. How are these different than cruise missles and what is used when?
Thank you all in advance.
In: Engineering
Cruise missiles have some sort of jet engine on them which allow them to cruise at low altitude for long times, sometimes hours. They are the low and slow approach to defeating missile defense. Radars have issues detecting targets that low, ground based radar can only detect missiles when they are above the horizon and airborne radar have issues distinguishing the missiles from the regular ground clutter line trees, power lines, mountains, etc. The problem is they are expensive and fragile. You are essentially building a full jet fighter just to crash it into a target, and if it gets hit on the way there it can no longer fly and will crash into something else.
Ballistic missiles however are the high and fast approach. They have a rocket motor that fires for just a few seconds and gives the missile all the speed and altitude to continue to the target. It is much faster and can cross terrain in seconds what a cruise missile needs an hour to cross. It will get noticed on radar, probably as it launches. But by the time the air defense systems have figured out how to best shoot it down it is too late as it is already too close. It is far more robust and can actually take a hit. There does not have to be any active guidance after launch as the payload is already heading on its final course to the target. You can put a hole straight through it and it will still hit the target. In fact blowing it up will only cause the target to get sprayed with remains of the missile which can still be deadly. And because it is so much cheaper you can launch hundreds of them for the cost of a cruise missile, or have tens of different payloads in each missile where each payload needs to be shot down independently of each other.
Needless to say ballistic missiles are considered an older technology. Modern missile defense systems are able to make decisions fast enough to shoot them down. But it is still favored by some for its simplicity and low cost. You can make a rocket motor at home but only a few companies in the world can build jet engines for cruise missiles. Let alone guidance systems. Even for Iran it have taken quite a bit of effort to get those cruise missiles, but teenagers are building ballistic missiles in Gaza.
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