An air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) is a

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 ...

that is launched from a

military aircraft A military aircraft is any Fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing or rotorcraft, rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary military of any type. Some military aircraft engage directly in aerial warfare, while others take on su ...

. Current versions are typically standoff weapons which are used to attack predetermined land and naval targets with conventional,

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space *Nuclear ...

thermonuclear Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nuclei, nuclei/neutron by-products. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of ener ...

payloads. Specific types of ALCMs (current, past and under development) include: *

AGM-28 Hound Dog The North American Aviation AGM-28 Hound Dog was a supersonic, turbojet, turbojet-propelled, Thermonuclear weapon, nuclear armed, air-launched cruise missile developed in 1959 for the United States Air Force. It was primarily designed to be capab ...

(USA) * AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (USA) *

AGM-86 ALCM The AGM-86 ALCM is an American Aerodynamics#Incompressible aerodynamics, subsonic air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) built by Boeing and operated by the United States Air Force. This missile was developed to increase the effectiveness and surviv ...

(USA) *

AGM-129 ACM The AGM-129 ACM (Advanced Cruise Missile) was a low-observable, subsonic, turbofan-powered, air-launched cruise missile originally designed and built by General Dynamics and eventually acquired by Raytheon Missile Systems. Prior to its withdra ...

(USA) *

AGM-158 JASSM The AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (AGM-158 JASSM) is a low detection standoff air-launched cruise missile developed by Lockheed Martin for the United States Armed Forces. It is a large, stealthy long-range weapon with a armor ...

(USA) * AGM-158C LRASM (USA) * AGM-181 LRSO (USA) * Air-Sol Moyenne Portée ASMP (France) *

AKF-98 AKF-98 () is a stand-off land-attack cruise missile of Chinese origin. It was debuted at Airshow China 2022. Development The AKF-98A was displayed at Zhuhai Airshow in 2022. It's a jet-powered stand-off cruise missile carried by fighter aircra ...

(China) * ASN4G (France) *

BrahMos The BrahMos (also designated as PJ-10)BrahMos-II BrahMos-II or BrahMos-2 or BrahMos Mark II is a hypersonic scramjet-propelled missile currently under joint development by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia, which have together formed Brah ...

(India/Russia) * CJ-10 (China) *

Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ; ) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved by Samson, a Nazirite who possesses great strength and serves as t ...

(Israel) *

Hatf-VIII (Ra'ad) Ra'ad (), military designation Hatf-VIII Ra'ad ('Target-8'), is a subsonic, standoff air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) jointly designed and developed by the National Engineering & Scientific Commission (NESCOM) and Air Weapons Complex. It i ...

(Pakistan) * CATS Hunter (India) *

Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile The Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM; pronounced ''Ha-sehm'') is an Australian-American scramjet-powered hypersonic air-launched cruise missile project, the successor of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) and the SCIFiRE ...

(USA) *

Hypersonic Air Launched Offensive Anti-Surface The Hypersonic Air Launched Offensive Anti-Surface (HALO) was a hypersonic air-launched anti-ship missile being developed for the United States Navy. It was designed to provide greater anti-surface warfare capability than the AGM-158C LRASM and ...

(USA) *

Ra'ad-II The Ra'ad-II ( 'Thunder-2') is a standoff and an air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) derived from the Hatf-VIII Ra'ad. It was first publicly unveiled on the Pakistan Day Parade on 23 March 2017, The ''Ra'ad'' features extended range, changes ...

(Pakistan) *

Joint Strike Missile The Joint Strike Missile (JSM) is a multi-role, air-launched cruise missile under development by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and American company Raytheon Missiles & Defense. The JSM is derived from the Naval Strike Mis ...

(Norway/USA) * Kalibr-A (Russia) *Taurus

KEPD 350 The Taurus KEPD-350 is a German-Swedish air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by Taurus Systems and used by Germany, Spain, and South Korea. Taurus Systems GmbH is a partnership between MBDA Deutschland GmbH (formerly LFK) and Saab Bofors D ...

(Germany/Sweden) *

Kh-20 The Raduga Kh-20 (NATO reporting name: AS-3 Kangaroo) was an air launched cruise missile armed with a thermonuclear warhead which was developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Kh-20 was designed to be air-launched. Background Kh-2 ...

(USSR) *

Kh-32 Kh-32 () is a Russian supersonic air-launched cruise missile with a range of 600–1000 km developed by the MKB Raduga from the Kh-22. The missile was accepted to service in 2016 as armament for the Tu-22M3M bombers. History Work on th ...

(Russia) *

Kh-35 The Zvezda Kh-35 (, NATO reporting name AS-20 'Kayak') is a Soviet turbojet subsonic cruise anti-ship missile. The missile can be launched from helicopters, surface ships and coastal defence batteries with the help of a rocket booster, in whic ...

(Russia) * Kh-55/Kh-555 (USSR/Russia) *

Kh-59 The Kh-59 ''Ovod'' ( Овод 'Botfly, Gadfly'; AS-13 'Kingbolt') is a Russian cruise missile with a two-stage solid-fuel propulsion system and 200 km range. The Kh-59M ''Ovod-M'' (AS-18 'Kazoo') is a variant with a bigger warhead and turbojet e ...

(USSR/Russia) * Kh-61 (USSR/Russia) * Kh-101/102 (Russia) *

KSR-5 The KSR-5, also designated as the Kh-26 (NATO reporting name AS-6 Kingfish) was a long-range, air-launched cruise missile and anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union. It was essentially a scaled down version of the Kh-22 'Kitchen', ...

(USSR) * MICLA-BR (Brazil) *

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...

(France/UK) *

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Saber A sabre or saber ( ) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the Early Modern warfare, early modern and Napoleonic period, Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such a ...

(UAE) * SOM (Turkey) *

Storm Shadow The Storm Shadow is a Franco-British low-observable, long-range air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA. "Storm Shadow" is the weapon's British name; in France it is calle ...

/SCALP EG (France/UK) * Wan Chien (Taiwan) * YJ-12 (China) * 3M-51 Alfa (Russia) *

3M22 Zircon The 3M22 Zircon,also spelled as Tsirkon (, NATO reporting name: SS-N-33), is a Russian scramjet-powered, nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missile. Produced by NPO Mashinostroyeniya for the Russian Navy, the missile utilizes the 3S-14 launc ...

(Russia) *

10Kh 10Kh was the designation for the initial series of Soviet Union pulse jet engine powered air-launched cruise missiles, reverse engineered from the Fieseler Fi 103 (V-1) flying bomb, developed in the 1950s by OKB-52 under the leadership of Vladimir ...

(USSR)

References

Air-launched cruise missiles {{Missile-stub

See also

References