Guest Editor’s Introduction: Homing Missile Guidance and Control

2 INTRODUCTION The guided missile provides military forces with the capability to deliver munitions rapidly and precisely to selected targets at a distance. This capability establishes an effective means to conduct a wide variety of military missions that range from denying the enemy communications or supply routes, to establishing air superiority, to performing anti-ship cruise missile or ballistic missile defense. Because of this flexibility, guided missiles have attained a remarkable level of importance in military applications and, consequently, in research and development programs. Moreover, the ever-evolving capabilities of enemy systems continue to drive guided missile design toward improved precision, rapid maneuver, and highspeed intercept capabilities. We begin by defining the difference between an unguided rocket and a guided missile. An unguided rocket is a projectile weapon that (usually) is carrying a warhead and is propelled by an onboard rocket engine. oming missiles have played an increasingly important role in warfare since the end of World War II. In contrast to inertially guided long-range ballistic missiles, homing missiles guide themselves to intercept targets that can maneuver unpredictably, such as enemy aircraft or anti-ship cruise missiles. Intercepting such threats requires an ability to sense the target location in real time and respond rapidly to changes so that a target intercept can occur. Homing guidance, wherein an onboard sensor provides the target data on which guidance decisions are based, is used to accomplish this intercept. Because of the continually improving quality of target information as the missile closes in, homing guidance provides intercept accuracy that is unsurpassed by any other form of missile guidance. This article serves as the introduction to this Technical Digest issue on homing missile guidance and control. A number of basic concepts related to guided missiles are introduced in this article to provide the foundational concepts for the subsequent articles. Finally, the flight control and homing guidance concepts that are employed in such systems are discussed in the later articles in this issue. Guest Editor’s Introduction: Homing Missile Guidance and Control