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Ballistic Missiles are missiles that follow a trajectory, like an Artillery Round. Thus any rocket (except Guided Missiles for example air to air or ground to air or even air to ground missiles) are Ballistic Missiles. Air to Air Missiles and Ground to air (Except for the first generation of WWII and post-WWII air to air and ground to air Missiles) are either heat seeking or Radar guided Missiles, and thus not Ballistic. Air to Ground can be Ballistic, but NOT if Radar Guided, optical guided, heat seeking, or even direct aim.
The problem is people confuse the term Ballistic with long range rockets. All long range rockets are Ballistic, they follow a trajectory. The problem is once you have a target over about 20 miles there are to many variables to take into account for a ballistic missile to hit (Under 20 miles an 8 Itch howitzer can hit a pill pox firing it ballistic projectile, its round, to the target and this was possible during WWI). The problem once you start to go over 20 miles the calculations gets to be difficult Even with a computer (And impossible without accurate information such as the weather between the gun and the target which the enemy rarely will give you). Thus while accurate targeting can be made for ballistic weapons up to 20 miles away, once over that range the Launcher of the ballistic weapon rarely have the information needed to do the calculations needed to hit a target based on how the ballistic weapon was launched. Thus some sort of mis-course correcting device was needed (or an acceptance that the ballistic round was for large area targets only).
Second to the problem was how to move the weapon into a position to being able to hit a target in enemy territory. When the horse was the prime mover of artillery, artillery could not be heavier than about 75mm for guns or 105m for Howitzers (Howitzers had shorter barrels than Guns thus a 75 mm gun weighed about the same as a 105mm Howitzer). larger guns could be hauled by Horses, but that took teams of horses often pulling different parts of the Guns (Which were later assembled on site) or you had teams of horses that were used one after another to haul the bigger gun around (Oxen were also used on larger guns and later Steam tractors). These methods sufficed for gun up to 203mm(Eight Inch) but once you went over 8 inch you had a problem with these methods. Thus during WWI self-propelled Guns and Howitzers were used first for these larger guns. These first generation self-propelled guns were slower than horses (Thus horse drawn artillery stayed around through WWII) but better at moving the big guns but sonly so far. For the even larger guns (over 240mm) the armies of WWI went to Railroad guns, these tended to be naval cannons mounted on Railroad cars firing 8-14 inch ballistic rounds (The largest of these, the Paris Gun of 1918, had a range of almost 100 miles, but could only hit a target the size of Paris, thus its use only against that city).
During WWII, the prime mover shifted form Horses to Trucks. The British with is Land-rover (about a 1 1/2 ton Truck) to haul its "25 pounder" gun-howitzer (It was about 85mm diameter and designed to fire in high trajectories like a Howitzer but also on a line of sight aim like a gun, thus it was a "gun howitzer". The American 105 Howitzer was also a Gun Howitzer, but larger, for the US Army wanted close to the same range in the 105mm as the Army had in its previous M1897 French 75mm Howitzer from WWI. This was achieved, the 105mm had a range just about 100 yards less than the 75mm it replaced, most howitzers had 1/2 the range of Guns).
Note: In artillery use a Gun is a term reserved for a large Cannon designed to fire directly at a target. A Howitzer is a Cannon designed to fire at a steep angle (with the term Mortars used for weapons firing even steeper angles than howitzers). The main difference between a Howitzer and a Mortar prior to WWI was a Howitzer was designed for use in Mountains and Hills, while Mortars were design as siege weapons against Cities and Forts. Thus Howitzers looked like short barreled guns. Howitzer had wheels and were designed to be moved quickly if needed. Mortar rarely had wheels and were NOT designed for quick movement. Mortars were smooth bore for they were not intended for long range fire. Since they were NOT rifled, to achieve accuracy they fired fined projectiles on a ballistic course (these were called "Bombs" a term used by the first airplanes when dropping similar projectiles during WWI and a term still used for such weapons). Mortars were rare on the Battlefield given the fact they were hard to move.
Now during WWI, a new class of weapon came into the use, the Modern Mortar. Since it had a smooth bore and fired fined projectiles and had no wheels it was called a Mortar. It is designed for quick movement with the infantry, thus the term "Infantry Mortar" is often used for this new class of Ballistic weapon launcher.
Anyway back to the topic. During WWII the need for longer range for artillery was noted. To get that range you had to go to larger and larger artillery pieces. For example the US fielded not only a 240mm Howitzer but also a 240mm Gun as its largest field piece (and even shipped to Europe but never used a 36 inch mortar to used against German defenses on the Rhine). The Germans had a 800mm self-propelled Mortar (It had a very short barrel and was intended to use its track only for short distances). Furthermore the Germans fielded a 800mm GUN. This monster was built transporter by rail to where it was intended to be built. Then two sets of parallel railroad tracks were built. The gun was then assembled on site to fire its 800mm projectile into anything within 100 miles. It was designed for use against the French in 1940, but was produced to late for the French Campaign but was used against t Sevastopol in 1943. It took two weeks to set this monster up to fire its ballistic rounds into a target.
Anyway after WWII the need to such super projectiles was still needed (In fact even larger projectiles with further range were judged to be needed). Building these supper guns would cost millions of dollars AND air power was its chief threat. Some how such large projectiles had to be retained WHILE being launch from a much smaller launch vehicle.
Now the Russians had used Rockets in WWII, but as multiple launch weapons NOT as a single launch weapon, but the Russians and the Americans quicker saw the rocket as the solution to the above problem. Replace the huge cannon with a single rocket. You lose the ability to shoot several rounds, but you gain mobility. Thus the modern Ballistic rocket was invented. These were advanced during the 1950s and 1960s for even larger loads and increase accuracy. The problem was after a while the need to quickly launch the weapon without all the information for an accurate hit became a requirement. This was solved by adding the ability to make mid-course corrections as new information arrived at the launch site after the missile had been launched (This included radio transmissions from the Missile itself). Thus by the 1960s the previous generation of Rockets without Guidance after launched had been replaced by Missiles capable of mid-course corrections. This ability to adjust course also permitted greater range. Thus while all of the projectile I have discussed on this thread have been "Ballistic", in common usage the term came into use with these 1960s era missiles. People called them Ballistic missiles because it sounded better than rockets with mid-range correction.
As to the Patriot, its computer have advance a lot since 1990, but it still takes time to find that a rocket had been launched, to figure out its course and then to launch a missile to intercept it. Most of these Rockets are only in the air for seconds. The shorter range the less time int he air and thus the harder it is to detect, determine its course and launch a missile to intercept it. The Scuds of Desert Storm went from the Western Deserts of Iraq to Israel, these rockets are not going as deep into Israel as the Saddam;s Scuds did nor from as far away (Plus they are faster having no need to slow down to maintain communications for mis course corrections).
Thus these are Ballistic Missiles, just ones without the ability to hit accurately do to an inability to make mid-course corrections.
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