Surface-to-surface missile

A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea and strike targets on land or at sea. They may be fired from hand-held or vehicle mounted devices, from fixed installations, or from a ship. They are often powered by a rocket engine or sometimes fired by an explosive charge, since the launching platform is typically stationary or moving slowly. They usually have fins and/or wings for lift and stability, although hyper-velocity or short-ranged missiles may use body lift or fly a ballistic trajectory.^[1] The first operational surface-to-surface missile was the V-1 flying bomb, it was powered by a pulsejet engine.

Contemporary surface-to-surface missiles are usually guided. An unguided surface-to-surface missile is usually referred to as a rocket (for example, an RPG-7 or M72 LAW is an anti-tank rocket), whereas a BGM-71 TOW or AT-2 Swatter is an anti-tank guided missile.

Examples of surface-to-surface missile include the MGM-140 ATACMS^[2] and the Scud family of missiles.^[3]

Examples

• ALAS
• BGM-109 Tomahawk^[4]
• Bina
• Hermes
• Hyunmoo-3
• KARA Atmaca^[5]
• Kh-35
• Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW)
• Luz
• Martlet
• MGM-166 LOSAT
• MGM-140 ATACMS
• Nimrod
• Otomat
• PARS 3 LR
• Polyphem
• P-800 Oniks
• RBS-15
• Ure
• 3M-54 Kalibr
• 9K720 Iskander

Types

There are a wide variety of surface-to-surface missiles, and they can be categorized by their intended usage, intended target (such as anti-ship), flight profile, and launch platform, with these categorizations often overlapping. They may be launched from fixed silos, road-mobile vehicle, railcar, or naval launch platforms.

Cruise missiles travel at lower speeds and trajectories (often a few meters above ground), always within the atmosphere, and their motor burns during the entire flight. Ballistic missiles travel at higher speeds and trajectories with a short powered flight (boost phase) followed by a period of typically unpowered flight often exiting the atmosphere (midcourse phase), followed by a high speed unpowered terminal re-entry. They are typically classified by range band, from shortest to longest:

• Short-range ballistic missile (SRBM): Range less than 1,000 km.^[6][7]
• Medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM): Range between 1,000 km and 3,000 km.^[6]
• Intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM): Range between 3,000 km and 5,500 km.^[6]
• Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM): Range greater than 5,500 km.^[6]