I just googled it. Apparently a ballistic missile is only powered during the beginning of it's flight. (Think of ICBM's being rocketed to space or a high altitude before falling back to earth at their target.)
Regular missiles apparently are powered throughout their flight.
What about an air-to-air missile? Those are powered through reaching the target and are definitely NOT cruise missiles nor are they ballistic. Like one jet shooting another.
While you're technically right that all missiles are "ballistic" in the same sense that all bullets are ballistic, there's a distinction you're missing here. A "ballistic" missile is one that follows a ballistic path intentionally as part of its design. They up go, and then down toward the target. A non-ballistic missile like an AA missile, although it is technically ballistic, does not deliberately follow a ballistic path even though some of them are unpowered for some portion of their flight. It flies as direct a course as possible. Gravity is only a small part of the forces affecting its flight path, compared to a medium or long range ballistic missile which intentionally gets as high as possible and falls back down.
Regular missiles apparently are powered throughout their flight.
This isn't true either, missiles are often powered only for part of the flight as well. However, a ballistic missile flies a ballistic trajectory, meaning it goes up in the air and then falls back down by gravity. A non-ballistic missile will boost directly toward (or in front of) the target and then coast toward it at high speed. For example, anti-air missiles will fly toward the target and coast into its path, then explode when they meet.
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u/ddd615 Oct 02 '24
I just googled it. Apparently a ballistic missile is only powered during the beginning of it's flight. (Think of ICBM's being rocketed to space or a high altitude before falling back to earth at their target.)
Regular missiles apparently are powered throughout their flight.