Talk about technology: Missiles

Missiles are one of the most important strategic weapons of modern warfare. Hitler's V-1, V-2 missiles during World War II not only added a new dimension to warfare. It ushered in an era in space exploration. During the Cold War, space rocket science and missile technology progressed side by side. As a result, new types of missiles have been created.

A missile is one of the modern weapons. During World War II, Hitler's forces used the V-1 and V-2 missiles. These missiles added a unique dimension to the battlefield. It also added a unique dimension to space research.

Their application and working style are completely different from each other. All types of missiles can be mainly divided into four main categories. These again have multiple subcategories. These will be briefly discussed in this article for the convenience of the reader.

Surface to Surface Missile (SSM)

All types of surface-to-surface missiles belong to this category. It has several subcategories. In all cases the missile is launched from a land or other surface platform and hits a surface target.

1) Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM)

Destroying the monstrous weapon called a tank is quite a difficult task. That is why anti-tank weapons are getting better and better. Today, anti-tank rockets and missiles are in almost all modern armies. Since anti-tank rockets are unguided, they are prone to miss. But that's not the case with shoulder-portable ATGMs. Almost all types of armored vehicles are virtually defenseless against such missiles, except for a few modern tanks with active protection systems.

The operator of this type of missile keeps the launcher on his shoulder and points the missile at the target. Target Lock within a few seconds i.e. fires only when the enemy is marked. The missile then moves towards the target according to the data received from the launcher. Some anti-tank missiles have wires attached to the back, which continue to collect data about the target from the launcher until it hits the target. As a result, it is impossible for the tank to escape. There are also some missiles which are Fire & Forget class. They find their own target after firing, so it is very difficult to dodge them. Some missiles have completely different tactics. For example, the US Javelin missile goes straight up in the sky after firing according to a mood. Then it hit the tank right above its head. As you know, there is less armor on the top than around the tank. That's why the Javelin has a higher success rate than other ATGMs. With such missiles it is possible to shoot down helicopters flying at a low altitude.

2) Anti-Ship Missile

Warships are also considered surface platforms in the missile definition. Since World War II, the days of cannon firing in sea warfare have pretty much come to an end. Every modern warship has a naval gun, but not for direct combat with another warship. Due to multiple radars and real time satellite imagery, it is now possible to detect enemy ships before they come within gun range. As a result, anti-ship missiles became the main weapon of naval warfare of this era. These anti-ship missiles generally behave like cruise missiles. But only long range anti ship missiles are called cruise missiles. On the other hand, only China has ballistic class anti ship missiles. We will know about both types of missiles a little later.

Such missiles are of the Sea skimming type. That is, they always fly at a height of 50 to 2 meters to avoid radar. They can be detected at the very last moment (28-46 km away) so there is very little time (25-60 seconds) to take defensive measures. Therefore, anti-ship missiles are one of the most dangerous missiles of today's era. Therefore, as a last defense against such missiles, modern warships use a type of automatic multi-barrel machine gun system called CIWS to destroy it by shooting like rain at the very last moment. Apart from multirole fighter aircraft, anti-ship cruise missiles can also be launched from a handful of maritime strike helicopters, attack submarines and land-based 'coastal defense systems'.