Missile Guidance
Introduction Missile guidance concerns the method by which the missile receives its commands to move along a certain path to reach a target. On some missiles, these commands are generated internally by the missile computer autopilot. On others, the commands are transmitted to the missile by some external source. The missile sensor or seeker, on the other hand, is a component within a missile that generates data fed into the missile computer. This data is processed by the computer and used to generate guidance commands. Sensor types commonly used today include infrared, radar, and the global positioning system. Based on the relative position between the missile and the target at any given point in flight, the computer autopilot sends commands to the control surfaces to adjust the missile's course. Missiles are the one of the major weapon in the wars. The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send". The first missiles to be used operationally we...