Guided Weapons

Question 1

Role and categories (4, 10)

Answer 1

1. Air-to-Air Missile (AAM):
   * Short Range. Often referred to as Within Visual Range (WVR).
   * Long Range. Often referred to as Beyond Visual Range (BVR)
2. Air-to-Surface Missile (ASM):
   * Tactical. Not capable of delivering NBC warheads.
   * Strategic. Capable of delivering NBC warheads.
3. Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM).
   * Hand held. Often referred to as Man Portable Air Defence (MANPAD).
   * Short Range Air Defence (SHORAD).
   * Long Range.
4. Surface-to-Surface Missile (SSM). There are 3 categories of SSM:
   * Anti-Armour.
   * Tactical.
   * Strategic.

Question 2

Components of a GW (4)

Answer 2

1. Guidance section.
2. Control section.
3. Warhead section.
4. Propulsion section

Question 3

Three types of guidance

Answer 3

1. Homing
2. Command
3. Pre-set

Question 4

Types of homing (3)

Answer 4

1. Radar homing (Composite/dissimilar material cone)
2. Infra-Red (Clear or opaque/smoked glass dome with silver mirror)
3. Laser homing (Clear glass with gold mirror)

Question 5

Types of command guidance (4)

Answer 5

1. Wire Command (up to 5km, only for SSM Anti-armour
2. Radio Command (Multiple antennas to keep signal when manouvring) - Always ASM or SAM
3. Beam-riding (Rear facing glass windows/black squares. SAM hand-held or SSM anti-armour.
4. Electro-optical (TV guidance, camera and large glass dome) Only ASM

Question 6

Types of pre-set guidance (4)

Answer 6

1. Inertial (Uses gyroscopes (V1&2) - Least suitable for precision accuracy)
2. Celestial (Only in ICBMs or Intermediate range BMs (IRBMS) - SSM strategic
3. GPS (V Acurate but can be jammed) - ASM, SSM Tac and Strat or Guided HE bombs
4. Terrain Comparison (TERCOM) (Stored radar map of programmed flight path and compares to actual flight) ASM and SSM Strat.

Question 7

Guidance Section Hazards (5)

Answer 7

1. Radio Frequency (RF) emissions
2. High voltages
3. High-pressure coolants
4. Toxins
5. Carcinogens.

Question 8

Control Section Functions (2)

Answer 8

1. Steers Weapon
2. Provides power and cooling to other sections

Question 9

Control section components (4)

Answer 9

1. Weapon Steering (Either moveable control surface or altering angle of propulsion exhaust.
2. Rollerons (Like mini gryoscopes) - Usally on AAM Short range
3. Steering power. (Power source to move control surfaces, pneumatics or hydraulics)
4. Electrical power. (Thermal. wet or dry cell batteries or turbo-generator) - Powers guidance and warhead.

Question 9

Control section components (3)

Answer 9

1. Weapon Steering (Either moveable control surface or altering angle of propulsion exhaust.
2. Rollerons (Like mini gryoscopes) - Usally on AAM Short range
3. Steering power.

Question 10

Warhead section components (3)

Answer 10

1. Fuze
2. Safety and arming device (SAD)
3. Warhead/payload itself

Question 11

Guided Weapon Fuzing options (3)

Answer 11

1. Contact Fuzing (Break wires, piezo-electric or crush switches)
2. Proximity (Side looking as well as front and underside looking - RF, laser and Active IR). On AAM and SAM
3. Self-Destruct fuzing (To deny to EN if weapon fails to function, Operate on loss of command sig, time delay or power run down) - All AAM and SAM

Question 12

Safety Arming Device (SAD) Functions (3)

Answer 12

1. Provides safety breaks before weapon launch.
2. Arms the weapon after launch.
3. Links the fuze or fuzes to the warhead

Question 13

Types of warhead (4)

Answer 13

1. Armour Defeating (Sometime tandem charges for ERA)
2. Anti aircraft (Annular blast fragmentation, expanding rod warhead.
3. Stratigic & Missile (Possibly NBC)
4. Other Warhead Types (Anti-ship, Semi-armourpiercing, submunitions, blast, frag, thermobaric (Fuel/air), shot.)