Cruise Missiles & The Mobile Autonomous Launcher

Missiles are projectiles propelled by rockets or jet engines, with one or more explosive warheads, or other weaponry. [Missile: Latin mittere : to send ]

Missile: powered, guided munition

Rocket: powered, unguided munition

Bomb: unpowered, guided munition

Missiles are generally categorized by their launch platform and intended target - in broadest terms these will either be surface (ground or water) or air, and then sub-categorized by range and the exact target type (such as anti-tank or anti-ship), as follows:

Surface to Surface / Air to Surface : Ballistic missiles, Cruise Missiles, Anti-shipping, Anti-tank

Surface to Air : Anti-aircraft, Anti-ballistic

Air to Air : Anti-satellite (ASAT)

Concentrating on the 1st 2 types, a ballistic missile is one that is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the laws of orbital mechanics and ballistics. A cruise missile on the other hand, designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many hundreds of miles with high accuracy, is non-ballistic i.e. guided throughout it's trajectory ('flying bomb') and remains at a low altitude to avoid radar detection.

India and Russia have jointly developed the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos (Brahmaputra+Moskva ,rivers). The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), headquartered in New Delhi, India, has designed and developed five different launchers(MAL) for the PJ-10 supersonic antiship cruise missile, BrahMos.

The Mobile Autonomous Launcher (MAL), shown above, is the first indigenously developed single vehicle weapon system that comprises command control and communication systems. It is assisted by a Missile Replenishment Vehicle(MRV) and a Workshop Vehicle(WV). The MAL, MRV and WV all enter the actual battlefield, the MRV replenishing MAL with missile after launch, and WV with toolings required.

Each launcher carries three canisterised missiles inside three independent containers. Containers provide necessary supports to the missile canisters; ensure thermal conditioning of the canisters and interface with the launch beam. The Ground Resting Units are assembled with the containers to provide necessary support to the missile when in the vertical position prior to launch, during which it then takes the thrust load. The containers are carried in horizontal position in transportation mode.

The launch beam is articulated to make the canisters vertical through the operation of a high pressure hydraulic system controlled by an electronic controller. The launcher control system (LCS) functions in coordination with fire control system (FCS) and communication system.The vehicle and the systems are capable of operating in NBC fall out environment as all operations can be automatically carried out from a protected equipment cabin of the MAL. The MAL has a containerised power supply system consisting of 40 kVA diesel generating set and 40 kVA PTO alternator, a 2 x 7.5 kVA single-phase UPS with battery bank for 15 min back up, and a 5 kVA single phase generating set.

The big advantage of the cruise missile is its smallness and cost. The missile's small size and weight of less than 3000 pounds enables an aircraft to carry a great number of them: a projected 18 by a B-52 (in comparison with only two Hound Dogs) or as many as 50 by a Boeing 747 or similar wide-bodied transport converted into a missile carrier. Its small size also improved the weapon’s chances of penetration, especially when combined with its ability to fly along the contour of the earth, as low as 20 meters above a level surface or within 100 meters of mountainous terrain, according to some published reports. The map matching system (TERCOM) is combined with an inertial navigational system in a system called TAINS. This not only gets the cruise to its target but also with an accuracy heretofore unheard of for an intercontinental weapon: less than 100 meters, an accuracy that brings the cruise missile full circle by making nonnuclear warheads feasible.

The unmanned winged missile has come a long way. Incremental technology has surmounted problems of range, guidance, warhead, accuracy, and vulnerability, producing a weapon which promises to have quite a different net effect. The march of advanced technology is relentless and cannot be underestimated. The War, for the best, never ends.