Difference between Ballistic and Cruise missiles

[Faizan Qadri]

I have heard a large variety of ballistic and cruise missiles in Pakistan Army but I no longer knew what are the main differences between them. please give me details about these two types of missiles.

 

[SMC]

Ballistic missiles travel at much higher altitude and at faster speeds. But they can be seen by radars. Cruise missiles travel at a very low altitude (often slower in speed) but hard to detect by radars.

 

[Faizan Qadri]

Thank you very much for this useful information.

 

[Awesome]

Check out the How a cruise missile works thread.

 

[Super Falcon]

bullistick missile too check it out sir

 

[jagjitnatt]

ballistic missiles are big, heavy and expensive. They are basically warheads on a rocket. These missile are launched vertically and only from ground or submarines. These missiles reach heights beyond the atmosphere and then re-enter the atmosphere at the target destination. Their engines switch off after the initial boost and while re entry the missile is accelerated by gravity.

Cruise missiles are smaller, less powerful, lighter and less expensive. They donot exit the atmosphere but rather hug the ground and stay very close to the ground to prevent detection be radars. Their engine remains on at all the time of their path. They are less destructive because of size and weight of warhead. They can be launched from aircraft also.

I hope that explained it.

 

[conworldus]

ballistic missiles are big, heavy and expensive. They are basically warheads on a rocket. These missile are launched vertically and only from ground or submarines. These missiles reach heights beyond the atmosphere and then re-enter the atmosphere at the target destination. Their engines switch off after the initial boost and while re entry the missile is accelerated by gravity.

Cruise missiles are smaller, less powerful, lighter and less expensive. They donot exit the atmosphere but rather hug the ground and stay very close to the ground to prevent detection be radars. Their engine remains on at all the time of their path. They are less destructive because of size and weight of warhead. They can be launched from aircraft also.

I hope that explained it.

LMAO Cruise missiles are not necessarily less powerful than ballistic missiles!! Cruise missiles are guided the whole way and ballistic missiles are guided only in the inital and final stage. Ballistic missiles rely on gravity pull in its ex-atmosphere phase to remain on course.

 

[SABRE]

@Jagjitnatt;

You are basically right. Couldn't have made it easier myself. But here are few additions:

These missile [ballistic] are launched vertically and only from ground or submarines.

They can also be launched from surface ships i.e. Indian Dhanush.

They are less destructive because of size and weight of warhead.

Depends if they are carrying a nuclear warhead or conventional, but yes compared to ballistic missile they have lesser destructive capability - for the reasons you pointed out (warhead weight etc ...).

They can be launched from aircraft also.[.quote]

When launched from an aircraft [ship or submarine also] the cruise missile may also be referred to as Standoff Missile.

A missile is categorized as Standoff when it has capability of being launched from a safe distance and allows the attacker/launcher to evade enemy defensive measures (attacker's launch platform remains outside the reach of enemy's counter measure weapons). Ra'ad ALCM in this case is a standoff missile and BrahMos is about to be.

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> An other important difference is the guidance system. The ballistic missiles have inertial guidance system with coordinates provided before launch, while cruise can have both inertial and GPS guidance system and can get live imagery from satellite. On this principle ballistic missiles have fixed 3 phased trajectory while cruise missiles can maneuver while in flight (i.e. evade hurdles).

> Cruise missiles have more of a tactical use while ballistic are more strategic (short range ballistic missiles excluded).

> Some experts categorize cruise missiles as self-destruct type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or rather Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicle (UCAV), thus it is covered in the UAV/UCAV sections of Missile Technology Control Regime (I think ... I have to go through MTCR again).