Re: Aircraft Vs Dreadnoughts (Which is what the topic mutated into :o)

From: "Richard and Emily Bell" <rlbell@sympatico.ca>

> The only beam riding missile that I have any data on is the SA-2
Guideline, which
> uses a 220 pound warhead, or more rarely, a small nuke

IIRC the Guideline is Command guidance, not a beam rider.

That is, there are 2 radars. One tracks the target, the other tracks the
missile.
The data gets fed into a simple computer, which issues steering commands
to the missile.
Actually, there are 3 radars : there's the search/acquisition radar too.
Fan
Song E
IIRC.

Beam Riding missiles include the RBS-70 (laser beam), and IIRC the AA-1
Alkali,
a real first-generation Soviet system. Unreliable memory is sending me
signals
about a UK weapon called "Blue Jay", predecessor to Firestreak and Red
Top,
which I'm not sure ever went into production.

Oh of course, and the Sparrow 1. Not to be confused with the AIM-7
Sparrow
2,
a very different missile, which is a semi-active homer.

Jeez it's a long time since I knew all this stuff. Once a weapons system
has
been
obsolete for awhile, those neuropns get re-cycled.