How do guided missles work?
In: Physics
It depends on the guidance, but it’s just a closed-loop control circuit. The missile detects a target and tracks it, the airfoils or exhaust vanes are steered to change it’s trajectory, and if the trajectory is wrong, that is detected by the sensor and the controls are adjusted accordingly.
Air-to-air missiles are generally one of two types: infrared or radar homing. An infrared missile has a sensor at the tip that is sensitive to heat. When launched, it steers the missile so that the target remains in the sensors view. They generally use a proximity sensor of some type, which tells the warhead to detonate when the missile is within the optimal range.
The radar homing type works in a similar way (but doesn’t necessarily have to stay pointed at the target, they can fly upwards to gain altitude first). They’re either guided by messages from the plane that launched them, which is using it’s radar to track the target, or they have their own radar to do so. In reality, it’s often both.
They use the radar information to steer towards the target and detonate when they get close enough.
It’s a very complicated subject, there’s a lot more to it than this.
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