Cruise missile

The invention: Aircraft weapons system that makes it possible to
attack both land and sea targets with extreme accuracy without
endangering the lives of the pilots.
The person behind the invention:
Rear Admiral Walter M. Locke (1930- ), U.S. Navy project
manager
From the Buzz Bombs of World War II
During World War II, Germany developed and used two different
types of missiles: ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.Aballistic
missile is one that does not use aerodynamic lift in order to fly. It is
fired into the air by powerful jet engines and reaches a high altitude;
when its engines are out of fuel, it descends on its flight path toward
its target. The German V-2 was the first ballistic missile. The United
States and other countries subsequently developed a variety of
highly sophisticated and accurate ballistic missiles.
The other missile used by Germany was a cruise missile called
the V-1, which was also called the flying bomb or the buzz bomb.
The V-1 used aerodynamic lift in order to fly, just as airplanes do. It
flew relatively low and was slow; by the end of the war, the British,
against whom it was used, had developed techniques for countering
it, primarily by shooting it down.
After World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union
carried on the Germans’ development of both ballistic and cruise
missiles. The United States discontinued serious work on cruise
missile technology during the 1950’s: The development of ballistic
missiles of great destructive capability had been very successful.
Ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads had become the basis
for the U.S. strategy of attempting to deter enemy attacks with
the threat of a massive missile counterattack. In addition, aircraft
carriers provided an air-attack capability similar to that of cruise
missiles. Finally, cruise missiles were believed to be too vulnerable
to being shot down by enemy aircraft or surface-to-air missiles.While ballistic missiles are excellent for attacking large, fixed targets,
they are not suitable for attacking moving targets. They can be
very accurately aimed, but since they are not very maneuverable
during their final descent, they are limited in their ability to change
course to hit a moving target, such as a ship.
During the 1967 war, the Egyptians used a Soviet-built cruise
missile to sink the Israeli ship Elath. The U.S. military, primarily the
Navy and the Air Force, took note of the Egyptian success and
within a few years initiated cruise missile development programs.
The Development of Cruise Missiles
The United States probably could have developed cruise missiles
similar to 1990’s models as early as the 1960’s, but it would have required
a huge effort. The goal was to develop missiles that could be
launched from ships and planes using existing launching equipment,
could fly long distances at low altitudes at fairly high speeds,
and could reach their targets with a very high degree of accuracy. If
the missiles flew too slowly, they would be fairly easy to shoot
down, like the German V-1’s. If they flew at too high an altitude,
they would be vulnerable to the same type of surface-based missiles
that shot down Gary Powers, the pilot of the U.S. U2 spyplane, in
1960. If they were inaccurate, they would be of little use.
The early Soviet cruise missiles were designed to meet their performance
goals without too much concern about how they would
be launched. They were fairly large, and the ships that launched
them required major modifications. The U.S. goal of being able to
launch using existing equipment, without making major modifications
to the ships and planes that would launch them, played a major
part in their torpedo-like shape: Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles
(SLCMs) had to fit in the submarine’s torpedo tubes, and Air-
Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCMs) were constrained to fit in rotary
launchers. The size limitation also meant that small, efficient jet engines
would be required that could fly the long distances required
without needing too great a fuel load. Small, smart computers were
needed to provide the required accuracy. The engine and computer
technologies began to be available in the 1970’s, and they blossomed
in the 1980’s.The U.S. Navy initiated cruise missile development efforts in
1972; the Air Force followed in 1973. In 1977, the Joint Cruise Missile
Project was established, with the Navy taking the lead. Rear
Admiral Walter M. Locke was named project manager. The goal
was to develop air-, sea-, and ground-launched cruise missiles.
By coordinating activities, encouraging competition, and
requiring the use of common components wherever possible, the
cruise missile development program became a model for future
weapon-system development efforts. The primary contractors
included Boeing Aerospace Company, General Dynamics, and
McDonnell Douglas.
In 1978, SLCMs were first launched from submarines. Over the
next few years, increasingly demanding tests were passed by several
versions of cruise missiles. By the mid-1980’s, both antiship and
antiland missiles were available. An antiland version could be guided
to its target with extreme accuracy by comparing a map programmed
into its computer to the picture taken by an on-board video camera.
The typical cruise missile is between 18 and 21 feet long, about 21
inches in diameter, and has a wingspan of between 8 and 12 feet.
Cruise missiles travel slightly below the speed of sound and have a
range of around 1,350 miles (antiland) or 250 miles (antiship). Both
conventionally armed and nuclear versions have been fielded.
Consequences
Cruise missiles have become an important part of the U.S. arsenal.
They provide a means of attacking targets on land and water
without having to put an aircraft pilot’s life in danger. Their value
was demonstrated in 1991 during the Persian GulfWar. One of their
uses was to “soften up” defenses prior to sending in aircraft, thus reducing
the risk to pilots. Overall estimates are that about 85 percent
of cruise missiles used in the Persian Gulf War arrived on target,
which is an outstanding record. It is believed that their extreme accuracy
also helped to minimize noncombatant casualties.