TABLE OF CONTENTS A cruise missile can be defined as a dispensable, pilotless, self-guided, continuously powered, air-breathing vehicle that flies just like an airplane, supported by aero-dynamic surfaces, and designed to deliver a conventional or nuclear device. Specifically, the cruise missile is powered by a small, high-efficiency turbofan engine in the 600-pound thrust class. Cruise missiles exist in three versions: (1) land-based or ground-launched cruise missiles ( GLCM), (2) sea-based or sea-launched cruise missiles ( SLCM), and (3) air-launched cruise missiles ( ALCM). Unlike a ballistic missile, which is powered and hence usually guided for only a brief initial part of its flight, after which it follows a free-fall trajectory governed only by the local gravitational field, a cruise missile requires continuous guidance, since both the velocity and the direction of its flight can be unpredictably altered, for example, by local weather conditions.
In this chapter we will mainly consider the air-launched cruise missile. As described above, the air-launched cruise missile is also a strategic, subsonic, turbofanpowered, winged vehicle designed for internal and external carriage on the B-52G/H carrier aircraft. The ALCM is intended for long-range strategic missions utilizing its inherently low observables and terrain-following capabilities to penetrate enemy air defenses. Guidance is inertial with terrain correlation position update technique used to achieve high terminal accuracy. The planned operational concept for the ALCM uses the missile's capabilities to complement the penetrating B-52 bomber in the strategic nuclear mission. The B-52 system can align...
