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
Ballistic missiles work like an old catapult in some ways.
They use rockets to accelerate themselves into the air, run out of fuel, then guide themselves onto the target using a ballistic trajectory (gravity).
A cruise missile is like a fighter jet, it has an engine that runs constantly allowing the missile to fly until it hits the target.
Cruise missiles tend to fly at lower altitudes, while ballistic missiles can go high up. Depending on the model even into space.
EDIT: Just add, Ballistic missiles are better suited to long range targets while Cruise missiles are for short to medium range targets where a higher degree of accuracy is required. Iran and many middle eastern countries still use a lot of ballistic missiles for medium range because it’s older technology that they have access to. They are universal delivery vehicles usable for explosive, chemical weapons, or nuclear bombs.
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