What is Cruise Missile?

A cruise missile is a guided missile that uses a lifting wing and a jet propulsion system to allow sustained flight. Cruise missiles are, in essence, unmanned aircraft. They are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many hundreds of miles with excellent accuracy. In 2001, modern cruise missiles normally travel at sub-sonic speeds, are self-navigating, and fly low in order to avoid radar detection. The term cruise missile covers several vehicles and their capabilities, from the Chinese Silkworm (HY-2), which has a range of less than 105 km, to the U.S. Advanced Cruise Missile (ACM), which can fly to ranges of up to 3,000 km. These vehicles vary greatly in their speed and ability to penetrate defenses. All, however, meet the definition of a cruise missile: “an unmanned self-propelled guided vehicle that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path and whose primary mission is to place an ordnance or special payload on a target”. This definition can include unmanned air vehicles (UAV’s) and unmanned control-guided helicopters or aircraft.

Cruise missiles were first developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The V-1 (introduced in 1944) was the first weapon to use the classic cruise missile layout of a bomb-like fuselage with short wings and a dorsally mounted engine, along with a simple inertial guidance system. The V-1 was propelled by a crude pulse-jet engine, the sound of which gave the V-1 its nickname of “buzz bomb”. Japanese kamikaze aircraft could be viewed as manned cruise missiles. During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union experimented further with the concept, deploying early cruise missiles from submarines and aircraft. The Soviet Union was especially fond of large cruise missiles. The United States had a program to develop a nuclear-powered cruise missile, Project Pluto. Although the concept was proven sound, none were ever test-launched. While ballistic missiles were the weapons of choice for land targets, heavy nuclear and conventional tipped cruise missiles were seen by the USSR as a primary weapon to destroy US carrier battle groups. Large submarines (e.g. Echo and Oscar class) were developed to carry these weapons and shadow US battle groups at sea, and large bombers (e.g. Backfire, Bear, and Blackjack models) were equipped with the weapons.

The Tomahawk is a highly accurate subsonic missile powered by a jet engine and is launched from Navy surface ships and submarines.  It flies more than 500 miles, navigating along a pre-programmed route that follows specific terrain features to the target.  Tomahawk land attack missiles can carry a 1,000-pound class high-explosive or a submunitions warhead.  The CALCM is also powered by a jet engine but is launched from B-52 bombers.  It flies a pre-programmed route using signals from the Global Positioning Satellite system and carries a conventional blast warhead.  The CALCM's accuracy is roughly half that of the Tomahawk.  Both weapons are capable of attacking land targets that are fixed or not easily relocatable.  A separate variant of the Tomahawk is designed to attack ships at sea. 

On January 17, 1991, forces of the U.N.-sponsored coalition initiated a massive aerial campaign against Iraq in response to its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.  U.S.  Navy ships and submarines launched 288 Tomahawk missiles and Air Force B-52 bombers launched 35 CALCMs during the campaign, all against targets in Iraq.1 During the campaign, coalition aircraft launched more than 40,000 individual attacks against targets in Iraq and Kuwait.  The targets ranged from strategic facilities, such as electrical generation plants and command and control facilities in Baghdad, to tactical targets, such as deployed Iraqi Army combat units. 

Tomahawk missiles have subsequently struck two Iraqi facilities in the Baghdad area.  On January 17, 1993, 42 missiles were successfully launched against the Zafraniyah Nuclear Fabrication Facility, and 23 missiles were successfully launched against Iraqi Intelligence Service headquarters on June 26, 1993. 

As of 2001, the Tomahawk missile (BGM-109) model has become a significant part of the US naval arsenal. It gives ships and submarines an extremely accurate, long-range, conventional land attack weapon. Each costs about $1,000,000 USD. The United States Air Force deploys an air-launched cruise missile, the AGM-86. It can be launched from bombers like the B-52 Stratofortress. Both the Tomahawk and the AGM-86 were used extensively during Operation Desert Storm.

Categories

Cruise missiles can be categorized by size, speed (subsonic or supersonic), range, and whether launched from land, air, surface ship, or submarine. Often versions of the same missile are produced for different launch platforms; sometimes air- and submarine-launched versions are a little lighter and smaller than land- and ship-launched versions.

Guidance systems can vary across missiles. Some missiles can be fitted with any of a variety of navigation systems (Inertial navigation, TERCOM, or satellite navigation). Larger cruise missiles can carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead, while smaller ones carry only conventional warheads.