A wire-guided missile is a

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket ...

that is guided by signals sent to it via thin wires connected between the missile and its guidance mechanism, which is located somewhere near the launch site. As the missile flies, the wires are reeled out behind it (

command guidance Command guidance is a type of missile guidance in which a ground station or aircraft relay signals to a guided missile via radio control or through a wire connecting the missile to the launcher and tell the missile where to steer to intercept its ...

). This guidance system is most commonly used in anti-tank missiles, where its ability to be used in areas of limited line-of-sight make it useful, while the range limit imposed by the length of the wire is not a serious concern. The longest range wire-guided missiles in current use are limited to about .

History

Electrical wire guidance dates back to the early 20th century with an early example being the Lay Torpedo. A prototype ground-based electrical wire-guided torpedo was built by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The pair of deployed German guided air-delivered ordnance designs, the

Fritz X Fritz X was the most common name for a German guided anti-ship glide bomb used during World War II. ''Fritz X'' was the world's first precision guided weapon deployed in combat and the first to sink a ship in combat. ''Fritz X'' was a nickname us ...

and

Henschel Hs 293 The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German radio-guided glide bomb. It is the first operational anti-shipping missile, first used unsuccessfully on 25 August 1943 and then with increasing success over the next year, ultimately damaging or si ...

, both used the ''Kehl-Straßburg'' radio guidance system for control. However, because the British proved to be able to develop countermeasures to interfere with the Germans' use of the ''Kehl-Straßburg'' ordnance guidance system, rushed projects were started in 1944 in order to develop alternatives. The first system to be modified in this fashion was the

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting v ...

Hs 293B

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A goo ...

. Other examples included the X-4

air-to-air missile The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...

, and the X-7

anti-tank Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first dev ...

version of the X-4. The X-7 influenced other military thinkers after the war. By the early 1950s a number of experimental systems had been developed (for example, Malkara missile), leading to their widespread deployment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Large numbers of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i tanks were destroyed using wire-guided AT-3 Sagger missiles during the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...

of 1973. Wire guidance has remained the main system for most smaller weapons although newer systems such as

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The ...

beam riding Beam-riding, also known as Line-Of-Sight Beam Riding (LOSBR) or beam guidance, is a technique of directing a missile to its target by means of radar or a laser beam. The name refers to the way the missile flies down the guidance beam, which is a ...

have come into use in anti-aircraft and some anti-tank use roles (such as the US

Hellfire missile The AGM-114 Hellfire is an air-to-ground missile (AGM) first developed for anti-armor use, later developed for precision drone strikes against other target types, especially high-value targets. It was originally developed under the name '' H ...

and the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n 9M133 Kornet). Some

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, ...

es can be wire-guided, such as the U.S. Mk 48 Advanced Capability (ADCAP) torpedo, Russian UGST torpedo, or the Swedish Torped 613, which is guided by an insulated wire.

Timeline

This is a timeline of notable early wire-guided missiles. * 1945 X-4 missile in production in Germany. * 1955

SS.10 The Nord Aviation SS.10 was a MCLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile designed by the French engineer Jean Bastien-Thiry. In American service, the missile was called the MGM-21A. The missile entered service in 1955 with the French Army. It was use ...

enters service with the French army. * 1956 Vickers Vigilant enters service with the British army and

SS.11 The SS.11, or AS.11, known as AGM-22 in American service, is a French manual command to line of sight wire-guided anti-tank missile manufactured by Nord Aviation. The missile entered service with the French Army in 1956. Production of the SS ...

with the French army. * 1957 ENTAC enters service with the French army and Cobra (missile) with the West German army. * 1958 Malkara missile an Australian missile enters service with the British. * 1960 AT-1 Snapper / 3M6 Shmel enters service in the Soviet Union. * 1960 Swingfire * 1963 AT-3 Sagger / 9M14 Malyutka enters service in the Soviet Union. * 1970 BGM-71 TOW enters service with the US Army. * 1972

MILAN Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

is accepted for service with the French Army.

References

{{Missile types Missile guidance Missile operation Missile types

History

Timeline

See also

References