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launching area directs a narrow radar or laser beam at the enemy aircraft or tank. Then, the missile is launched and at some point after launch is “gathered” by the radar or laser beam when it flies into it. From this stage onwards, the missile attempts to keep itself inside the beam, while the aiming station keeps the beam pointing at the target. The missile, controlled by a computer inside it, “rides” the beam to the target.
213:. Conical scanning works by splitting the single radar beam in two, and comparing the return strength in the two beams to determine which is stronger. The radar is then rotated towards the stronger signal to re-center the target. The antenna is spun so that this comparison is being carried out all around the target, allowing it to track in both altitude and azimuth. Systems that performed this automatically were known as "
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center of the beam. When used with conical scanning, the comparison can use several sets of paired antennas, typically two pairs, to keep itself centered in both axes. This system has the advantage of offloading the tracking to the ground radar; as long as the radar can keep itself accurately pointed at the target, the missile will keep itself along the same line using very simple electronics.
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the target in order to arrive with enough energy to do terminal manoeuvres. A possible solution for this problem was to use two radars, one for tracking the target and another for guiding the missile, but this drove up implementation costs. A more common solution for long-range missiles was to guide the missile entirely independently of the radar, using
280:. Because of this, it is possible to spatially encode additional information in a beam using digital or electro-optical means, which has a number of advantages. Missiles with small optical receivers on their tail can beam-ride on lasers with similar ease as earlier radar beam systems, but will be inherently more accurate due to the higher
155:. The name refers to the way the missile flies down the guidance beam, which is aimed at the target. It is one of the simplest guidance systems and was widely used on early missile systems, however it had a number of disadvantages for long-range targeting and is now found typically only in short-range roles.
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Another issue is the guidance path of the missile is essentially a straight line to the target. This is useful for missiles with a great speed advantage over their target, or where flight times are short, but for long-range engagements against high-performance targets the missile will need to "lead"
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Beam riding is based on a signal that is pointed towards the target. The signal does not have to be powerful, as it is not necessary to use it for tracking as well. The main use of this kind of system is to destroy airplanes or tanks. First, an aiming station (possibly mounted on a vehicle) in the
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Beam riding systems can be easily adapted to work with such a system. By placing receiver antennas on the rear of the missile, the onboard electronics can compare the strength of the signal from different points on the missile body and use this to create a control signal to steer it back into the
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from the target. The lower intensity requirement of laser beam riding systems compared to semi-active laser homing systems can make them significantly more difficult for a target's laser warning receivers to detect. Very low power signals can be used.
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Additionally, because the beam is usually projected directly onto the missile's receiver, an order of magnitude less intensity is needed than a semi-active design where the target must be "painted" and the missile must detect the laser's
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Early tracking radars generally use a beam a few degrees wide, which makes it easy to find the target as it moves about. Unfortunately, this makes the beam too wide to accurately attack the target, where measurements on the order of
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of a degree are required. To perform both operations in a single radar, some additional form of encoding is used. For WWII-era systems this was either
228:). As the missile flies towards the target, it, therefore, becomes increasingly inaccurate. This is not a problem at short ranges, but as many early
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to improve their effectiveness against high-performance and low-flying targets. In contrast to beam riding, semi-active guidance becomes
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Beam riding guidance based systems became more common again in the 1980s and 90s with the introduction of low-cost and highly portable
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The inherent disadvantage of the radar beam riding system is that the beam spreads as it travels outward from the broadcaster (see
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19:"Beam rider" redirects here. For the 1983 video game, see
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era for this reason. An early example was the
British
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244:accurate as the missile approaches the target.
431:"Active and SemiActive Radar Missile Guidance"
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415:, February 1, 2007, accessed March 14, 2007
408:, aerospaceweb.org, accessed March 14, 2007
256:. Pure radar beam riding was rare by 1960.
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379:Richardson, Mark, and Al-Jaberi, Mubarak,
116:Learn how and when to remove this message
725:Semi-automatic command to line of sight
348:(first ed.). Osprey. p. 220.
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284:of the beam's encoding at the target.
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383:, Cranfield University, 28 April 2006
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549:Submarine-launched ballistic missile
527:Intermediate-range ballistic missile
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54:adding citations to reliable sources
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420:"Man Portable Surface-Air Missiles"
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731:Automatic command to line of sight
521:Intercontinental ballistic missile
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143:is a technique of directing a
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806:Automatic target recognition
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859:List of missiles by country
602:Anti-ship ballistic missile
493:Air-launched cruise missile
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869:List of anti-tank missiles
864:List of anti-ship missiles
567:Surface-to-surface missile
370:Target Designation Systems
278:precision-guided munitions
252:, as was the case for the
147:to its target by means of
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768:Global Positioning System
713:Command off line of sight
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849:List of military rockets
707:Command to line-of-sight
673:Semi-active radar homing
413:"Early Radar Technology"
346:A Dictionary of Aviation
344:Wragg, David W. (1973).
238:semi-active radar homing
832:Predicted line of sight
786:Astro-inertial guidance
396:Jerzy Maryniak et al.,
230:surface-to-air missiles
174:surface-to-air missiles
16:Missile guidance system
614:Anti-submarine missile
590:Anti-radiation missile
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561:Surface-to-air missile
539:Shoulder-fired missile
505:Air-to-surface missile
790:Terrestrial guidance
596:Anti-satellite weapon
217:" or "lock follow".
50:improve this article
667:Active radar homing
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435:Australian Aviation
424:Australian Aviation
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282:spatial resolution
270:angular resolution
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65:"Beam riding"
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39:This article
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429:Carlo Kopp,
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48:Please help
43:verification
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817:TV guidance
742:Beam riding
480:By platform
437:, June 1982
310:9K121 Vikhr
129:Beam-riding
906:Categories
331:References
314:9M119 Svir
308:, Russian
302:Starstreak
153:laser beam
76:newspapers
890:See also:
634:(MANPADS)
471:Types of
182:Brakemine
21:Beamrider
727:(SACLOS)
652:Unguided
644:guidance
322:Stuhna-P
274:aperture
106:May 2017
827:Compass
774:GLONASS
744:(LOSBR)
733:(ACLOS)
721:(MCLOS)
715:(COLOS)
473:missile
215:lock on
200:⁄
145:missile
90:scholar
834:(PLOS)
794:TERCOM
709:(CLOS)
675:(SARH)
622:(ATGM)
616:(ASuM)
610:(AShM)
604:(ASBM)
598:(ASAT)
557:(SLCM)
551:(SLBM)
535:(SRBM)
529:(IRBM)
523:(ICBM)
495:(ALCM)
489:(ALBM)
352:
306:RBS 70
304:, the
300:, the
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842:Lists
808:(ATR)
799:DSMAC
770:(GPS)
693:(TVM)
669:(ARH)
628:(LAM)
592:(ARM)
586:(ABM)
569:(SSM)
563:(SAM)
507:(ASM)
501:(AAM)
325:ATGMs
298:ADATS
151:or a
149:radar
97:JSTOR
83:books
350:ISBN
320:and
318:Skif
312:and
242:more
69:news
642:By
189:RSA
139:or
52:by
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