The missiles of Thad and Patriot are not cruse missiles either, nither
are the s200 s400 in the video these are plan missiles very fast with no
cruse.
The Harpoon has big honkin fins on it and it can turn very sharply along
with all the other modern missiles we had Harpoons on the Antietam too
but we only fired very few of them in fact I think we only "qualified" 2
with the FC guys.
None of these missiles have gimbaled exhaust. They have mid and rear
fins and if they turn full tilt in opposite directions the missile will
vear quite rapidly.
Monroe
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [AR] Re: Turning after launch
From: Ed LeBouthillier <codemonky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, April 16, 2018 8:56 am
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
The turn I mean happens almost IMMEDIATELY after clearing the launch tube.
This rather RECENT trick seems to involve a swiveling exhaust, uncommon
for solid propellants I was thinking.
The missile is just going down range and not wasting propellant for altitude.
Most of those "recent systems" are vertical launch systems. In the old days,
we used to use "box launchers" for cruise and other missiles that were fixed
at a 45 degree angle. We used alt/azimuth launchers which could change their
bearing and elevation to point toward the target.
I worked on Standard and Harpoon Missile systems and most of the time it just
looked as if the missile was taking off at a 45 degree angle anyway. With
vertical launch systems, the rocket is immediately turning to go on a
trajectory towards the target. If you think of it, a target might be
downrange many miles (30-40 miles for example) but even if it's at altitude,
the target might only be 30K-40K ft. This means that the angle to point
toward the target is atan(40000/(40*5280)) = 10-ish degrees. So, most of the
time, the target is farther downrange than gaining altitude.