Missile, ICBM: first launch of a Titan I missile from an underground silo, May 3, 1961 [Credit: Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library]ICBM: first launch of a Titan I missile from an underground silo, May 3, 1961Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Librarya rocket-propelled weapon designed to deliver an explosive warhead with great accuracy at high speed. Missiles vary from small tactical weapons that are effective out to only a few hundred feet to much larger strategic weapons that have ranges of several thousand miles. Almost all missiles contain some form of guidance and control mechanism and are therefore often referred to as guided missiles. An unguided military missile, as well as any launch vehicle used to sound the upper atmosphere or place a satellite in space, is usually referred to as a rocket. A propeller-driven underwater missile is called a torpedo, and a guided missile powered along a low, level flight path by an air-breathing jet engine is called a cruise missile.

A brief treatment of military missiles follows. For full treatment, see rocket and missile system.

Propulsion, control, and guidance

Although missiles can be propelled by either liquid-fueled or solid-fueled rocket engines, solid fuel is preferred for military uses because it is less likely to explode and can be kept ready-loaded for quick launch. Such engines commonly propel tactical guided missiles—i.e., missiles intended for use within the immediate battle area—toward their targets at twice the speed of sound. Strategic missiles (weapons designed to strike targets far beyond the battle area) are either of the cruise or ballistic type. Cruise missiles are jet-propelled at subsonic speeds throughout their flights, while ballistic missiles are rocket-powered only in the initial (boost) phase of flight, after which they follow an arcing trajectory to the target. As gravity pulls the ballistic warhead back to Earth, speeds of several times the speed of sound are reached.

Almost all missiles are steadied in flight by stabilizing fins. In addition, guided missiles contain control systems to adjust their flight paths. The simplest control systems are aerodynamic, making use of movable vanes or flaps that alter the flow of air past the stabilizing fins. A more complicated system—used especially in ballistic missiles, which often travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere—is thrust vectoring. In this system the stream of gases from the rocket engine is deflected by placing vanes within the exhaust nozzle or by swiveling the entire engine.

The guidance system is the most important and sophisticated part of the missile. In tactical missiles, electronic sensors locate the target by detecting energy emitted or reflected from it. For example, heat-seeking missiles carry infrared sensors that allow them to “home” onto the hot exhaust of jet engines. Antiradiation missiles home onto radar emissions, while one type of optically homing missile may “lock” onto an image of the target that is captured by a television camera. Upon receiving information through its sensor, the guidance system relays instructions for course correction to the control mechanism through some type of autopilot contained within the missile or through commands transmitted from the launch platform.

Ballistic missiles contain some type of inertial guidance system, which compares the missile’s actual speed and position to the positions that it must assume in order to hit the target. The guidance system then generates correcting commands to the control system. Inertial guidance has become so accurate that the United States’ MX Peacekeeper ballistic missile, with a range of more than 6,000 miles (more than 9,650 km), has a 50-percent chance of delivering its 10 nuclear warheads within 400 feet (120 m) of their targets.


Tactical guided missiles are generally categorized according to the location of the launch platform and target. There are five types, air-to-air, air-to-surface, surface-to-air, antiship, and antitank, or assault.


ICBMs are usually launched from silos, which are reinforced canisters sunk into the ground for protection. Shorter-range ballistic missiles and some ICBMs are launched from railroad cars or wheeled trailers that offer the protection of mobility. “Hot-launched” ballistic missiles are launched directly from their canisters, while “cold-launched” missiles are ejected from the canisters by compressed gas before the rocket engines ignite. Submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) are ejected in this manner to the ocean surface from tubes within the submerged vessel. See also cruise missile; rocket; smart bomb; torpedo.

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