The fire control sequence (Executing the fire control sequence using the EMS) ends with a weapon on its way to the target. With unguided weapons, influence stops after the shot; with guided weapons (missiles), the trajectory is corrected continuously during flight. This chapter covers the question that matters most to the EW specialist: how does the missile know where the target is?
The answer determines everything: which emissions are in the air during an engagement, who has to keep "looking" until impact, what warning the target gets, and which countermeasure stands a chance of success. A missile that relies on the radar of its launch platform is defeated differently from one that transmits itself, and that one differently again from one that homes entirely passively on your heat.
We first cover the building blocks (components and flight phases), then the guidance families: beam riding, command guidance, homing guidance (semi-active, passive, active), track-via-missile and navigation guidance.