A land-attack missile (LAM) is a naval

surface-to-surface missile A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea and strike targets on land or at sea. They may be fired from hand-held or vehicle mounted devices, from fixed installations, or from a ship. They ar ...

that is capable of effectively attacking targets ashore, unlike specialized anti-ship missiles, which are optimized for striking other ships. Some dual-role missiles are suitable for both missions. Like long-range anti-ship missiles, land-attack missiles are usually

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

turbofan A turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a combination of references to the preceding generation engine technology of the turbojet and the add ...

powered

cruise missile A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cru ...

s. To prevent early detection and counter-measures, they usually fly near the ground at very low altitude, employing terrain-following techniques, either with

terrain-following radar Terrain-following radar (TFR) is a military aerospace technology that allows a very-low-flying aircraft to automatically maintain a relatively constant altitude above ground level and therefore make detection by enemy radar more difficult. It is ...

or with precise navigation system, like GPS, combined with a stored map of obstacles and ground elevation data (

TERCOM Terrain contour matching, or TERCOM, is a navigation system used primarily by cruise missiles. It uses a Contour line, contour map of the terrain that is compared with measurements made during flight by an on-board radar altimeter. A TERCOM syste ...

). Land-attack missiles are usually programmed before launch to follow a set of way-points up to the target. Terminal guidance can be done with

active radar homing Active radar homing (ARH) is a missile guidance method in which a missile contains a radar transceiver (in contrast to semi-active radar homing, which uses only a passive radar, receiver) and the electronics necessary for it to find and track it ...

, passive radar or electronic warfare support measures,

infrared homing Infrared homing is a Missile guidance#Passive homing, passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "he ...

or optical guidance, or the (fixed) target was predesignated with as final way-point. Some missiles allow mid-course updates after launch and some may even send information back to the launch platform or other units.

List of missiles

References

* Naval weapons {{Missile-stub