How do missiles locate their target? How do they identify that they got the correct target?
In: Technology
Varies a bit from technology to technology. Heat-seeking and optical missiles see a high-contrast picture and try to maneuver so the object they are tasked to follow stays where they plan to hit it (they can think ahead to intercept objects).
Radar missiles emit high-frequency radar pulses that are echoed by the object the are tasked to track. This way they know where their target is and then they can act the same way as heat-seekers or optical missiles.
All of these technologies can be fooled, though. If a plane crosses exactly in front of the plane they are tracking (and its path isn’t too dissimilar from their target’s) they can sometimes switch to the other plane.
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