Guided Weapon Engineering: An Introduction to Guided Missile Design and Development Available to Purchase

THE purpose of a guided weapon is to destroy the enemy. Therefore the success of a guided weapon design must be measured by the efficiency with which it achieves this aim. According to one's up‐bringing it is customary to regard the guided missile either as a small high‐speed aircraft without a pilot, or as an artillery shell provided with wings and some method of manoeuvre. From the engineering point of view the second is, I think, the better attitude to take. For in Service use the guided weapon as an engineered product must be much more akin to the artillery shell than to a fighter aircraft in matters of robustness, long‐storage life without deterioration or too frequent maintenance, case of handling and cheapness. As there is no pilot in a guided weapon, there is a considerable easement relative to orthodox aircraft design in matters relating to safety in flight, although there is, of course, a paramount need to ensure that the missile is safe during the launch period and on other occasions when it is near one's own troops or aircraft. Thus, because the guided weapon designer is not hazarding the life of a pilot, he is free to choose a missile design of less reliable performance but which is cheaper to make rather than a highly reliable design which is expensive to make, provided that the economic effort of firing more of the less reliable missiles is a significant saving on the firing of a fewer number of the more expensive reliable missiles. Reliability is the word most often heard in guided weapon engineering circles.