The missile theory

Some days back, one of my followers in twitter happened to ask the question regarding missiles and how a cruise missile differentiates to a ballistic missile. Being the repository of some grains of the desert of knowledge (i feel knowledge is barren, application makes it fertile) and my undying attitude to reply any question, i went on send up a Wikipedia link (those guys did have a good article), however all troubles began when the article had too much jargon to confuse at times and the plea fell again to bring out in a simple laymen terms. So, here i am to do that bidding:: 

Disclaimer: potential terrorists please note that the following information shall not be of any use to you unless you are planning to buy some or trying to expand your horizons of knowledge. 

First things first; a missile in the present day world is described of such thrown objects which propel on their own i.e. they carry their own fuel and are unlike rockets where they are propelled by the power of the launcher.

Ballistic missile: I hope you reader knows Newton's third law of motion "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction" Ballistic missiles work on that principle to the word where their thrust produced mark their course, with the difference being, if you would manage to launch them like rockets too their path will be approximately the same. So in a usual day a ballistic missile shall have a parabolic path of motion, however they do have variable thrusters which help them change their course by some degrees. The easiest example being the fireworks that are used in celebrations.

Cruise missiles: Cruise missiles in the earlier days were nothing but planes on a suicide mission( usually unmanned, see they too had these UAVs then) but then the problem lies in the fact that these usually are subsonic in nature i.e they may not travel faster than 330 metres per second some of the well known of them being the Tomahawk and the Javelin. However, India and Russia in a joint venture managed to make hypersonic cruise missiles which travel at around 1650 metres per second, the BrahMos. Cruise missiles can be 'driven' it means they are preferred for targets in motion as you may alter its course as and when needed till either you hit the target or your fuel runs out. These usually are short range missiles and hence are quite small in size.

However both missiles being very different in their application and systems of delivery, making a comparison shall be unfair.

So that will be a short primer until then "try not to get struck

you mayfind me on twitter @prakashray