Fire-and-forget

The RAF's Brimstone missile is a modern anti-tank missile.

Fire-and-forget is a third-generation method of missile guidance. The military use the term for a type of missile which does not require further guidance after launch such as illumination of the target or wire guidance (TOW), and can hit its target without the launcher being in line-of-sight of the target. This is an important property for a guided weapon to have, since a person or vehicle that lingers near the target to guide the missile (using, for instance, a laser designator) is vulnerable to attack and unable to carry out other tasks.

ATGMs are guided to the target by multiple means, such as SACLOS and MCLOS. Laser designators/range finders are also used to designate the traget for the missile to hit. But fire-and-forget missiles also have the tendency to be deflected by soft-kill systems on modern main battle tanks as well as also getting destroyed by hard-kill systems. As opposed to unguided RPGs which require a hard-kill system(a counter projectile/s used to destroy the incoming missile), fire-and-forget missiles can be jammed by electro-optical dazzlers like the Russian-made Shtora-1 EOCMDAS.

Generally, information about the target is programmed into the missile just prior to launch. This can include coordinates, radar measurements (including velocity), or an IR image of the target. After it is fired, the missile guides itself by some combination of gyroscopes and accelerometers, GPS, organic RADAR, and infrared optics. Some systems offer the option of either continued input from the launch platform or fire-and-forget.

Examples

Many of these are infrared homing missiles; some of the remainder (e.g. AIM-54) are active radar guided.

Modern PARS 3 LR fire-and-forget missile of the German Army

Modern Nag missile fire-and-forget missile of the Indian Armed Forces

See also

• Precision-guided munition
• Anti-tank guided missile
• Command guided
• MCLOS
• SACLOS
• missile

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