It is reported that the Japanese government has recently officially decided to buy 500 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States at a price of 211300 million yen this year to improve its so-called "counterattack capability against enemy bases", and these missiles will be carried on the Aegis warship planned to be rebuilt in Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force to enhance its combat effectiveness. Precision guided weapons are weapons and equipment that adopt high-precision detection, control and guidance technology, can effectively detect, identify and track targets from complex backgrounds, can select targets from multiple targets and hit their key parts with high precision, and finally destroy the targets. With the development and advancement of information warfare, guided weapons have become an important bargaining chip to measure military strength, and at the same time, with the continuous improvement of scientific and technological level, they also show more clear trends and characteristics.
Development course of guided weapons
Early guided weapons first appeared during World War II. It originated from an acoustic torpedo overdrawn by the British Air Force patrol bomber Freedom from a German submarine. This torpedo guided by radio and radar seriously damaged the U456 ship in Germany and made the guided weapon debut in the battlefield. Due to the limitation of radio and radar guidance, the early guided weapons did not achieve real accuracy and the success rate was not high. The initial stage of airborne laser-guided bombs has completely opened a new chapter in land precision strike.
The US military used 1 1 F-4 fighter planes to blow up the Tsinghua Bridge in North Vietnam with laser-guided missiles, and then air-to-ground, ground-to-ground and air-to-ground guided weapons developed rapidly.
The guidance revolution brought by laser-guided weapons. Due to the poor accuracy of early guided weapons and their vulnerability to environmental influences, laser guided weapons quickly occupied the "market". BOLT- 1 17 The world's first laser-guided bomb was developed by the United States. The working principle of laser-guided bombs is to use the laser on the ground or on the plane to illuminate the designated target, and then the launched bombs or missiles use photosensitive sensors to track the target to achieve accurate strike. The first large-scale application of light-guided bombs appeared in the Gulf War, and the "Gemstone Road" laser-guided bombs became famous in one fell swoop.
This American guided weapon, based on mk80 series standard bombs, added laser guidance system and missile wings, played a vital role in the Gulf War.
The propulsion of satellite to guided weapons was tested in the Gulf War, and the value of laser guided weapons was fully reflected, but at the same time its limitations were also unobstructed. Laser-guided weapons can only be used in specific visual environments or when air targets are visible.
In order to further improve the guidance ability and precision strike ability, the composite guidance of GPS and inertial guidance system was born-NATO bombed Yugoslavia. Tomahawk cruise missile and GBU-37 missile equipped with GPS/INS composite guidance system completed their first actual combat, which overcame the shortcoming that laser guidance system was easily affected by the environment and provided a clearer direction for the development of subsequent guided weapons.
Development trend of future guided weapons
Detect and tracking that evolution from low-dimensional detection to high-dimensional detection; Promote the development in a more intelligent direction; Going further and further towards the track of remoteness and serialization.
Missile serialization mainly refers to the development of missile serialization design, which is reasonably classified and developed in groups according to different operational tasks or service technical characteristics (such as range, warhead, guidance system, etc.). ), forming a multi-purpose missile family, parameter serialization and series spectrum of missile-related products.
For example, Russian "caliber" cruise missiles have developed models such as "3M-54E 1", "3M- 14E" and "9 1RE 1". French flying fish MM-38 ship-to-ship missile with subsonic short-range sea skimming, flying fish AM-39 air-to-ship missile flying fish MM-40 medium-range ship-to-ship missile and American rattlesnake series, sparrow series and fairy bird series. According to the idea of "family" development, the missile serialization has been promoted, which is more suitable for dealing with different targets and different launch platforms and realizes the classification of precision strikes.
Anti-jamming and penetration capabilities constantly break through the complex electromagnetic environment under the background of electronic warfare. Facing the complex and changeable electromagnetic environment, how to improve the anti-jamming and penetration ability of missiles is one of the bottlenecks in the development of high-precision guided weapons.
Although the anti-jamming ability of modern precision guided weapons is increasing, the anti-jamming means are limited in any case. For opponents who have mastered the technical parameters, the operational effectiveness of guided weapons can be greatly reduced only by jamming measures. On the other hand, precision guided weapons are expensive. Once intercepted, it not only means the loss of military targets, but also means huge economic losses. Therefore, improving the operational concealment of precision guided weapons and adopting various anti-jamming measures will become the development trend of guided weapons in the future.
In the information war, precision guided weapons have the characteristics of high hit accuracy, strong penetration ability, high lethality and high comprehensive benefits, which determines that they will be the core role in the future battlefield. With the continuous development of cutting-edge technologies and theories in the information age, the operational application scenarios of precision guided weapons will become more and more extensive, and it will also become a key index to measure the combat effectiveness of military powers. For the game between big countries, how to further promote the development of precision guided weapons to a high level determines whether a country can rank among the top in the world in military strength.