This chapter at a glance:
- A missile consists of a seeker, guidance, autopilot, warhead, fuze, propulsion and control section; the intercept runs through boost, midcourse and terminal — often each with its own guidance method.
- Beam riding: the missile centres itself in a beam that is kept on the target — simple and hard to disrupt, but short-ranged.
- Command guidance (CLOS/COLOS): the platform sees everything and steers the missile via a link — a cheap missile, but range-dependent accuracy and a jammable link; ideal as a midcourse method.
- Homing: the seeker is in the missile and accuracy increases as it closes in — SARH (the platform illuminates; tied down and loud), passive (IR/anti-radiation: completely silent, fire and forget), ARH (own radar: autonomous, but detectable and jammable itself in the terminal phase).
- TVM (and the related Russian SAGG) combines seeker measurements with ground processing — the difference lies in how much the missile pre-processes itself; navigation guidance (INS + GPS + TERCOM + terrain following) flies to a position rather than to the target and stacks layers against jamming and spoofing.
With that the circle is complete: from quantities and units (Basic arithmetic, quantities and units) via waves and the spectrum (The electromagnetic spectrum to Military applications within the EMS), radar (Radar), IR (Infrared) and laser (Laser and military applications) to the fire control chain (Executing the fire control sequence using the EMS) and the weapon that completes it (Missile Guidance). Anyone who can walk through this chain in both directions — as user and as opponent — has the foundation of the EW profession in hand.