The simultaneous proliferation of cruise missile delivery methods and BTW [biological and toxin warfare] production capabilities may confound a serious strategic threat in the future Jonathan B Tucker "The coming of Biological Warfare" THE UNITED STATES clearly demonstrated the strategic and operational effectiveness of cruise missiles to the world between 16 January and 2 February 1991 when US Navy surface ships and submarines in the Persian Gulf; R Sea.

The simultaneous proliferation of cruise missile delivery methods and BTW [biological and toxin warfare] production capabilities may confound a serious strategic threat in the future

Jonathan B Tucker

"The coming of Biological Warfare"

THE UNITED STATES clearly demonstrated the strategic and operational effectiveness of cruise missiles to the world between 16 January and 2 February 1991 when US Navy surface ships and submarines in the Persian Gulf; R Sea, and Eastern Mediterranean launched 288 Tomahawk land-attack missiles (TLAM) and the US Air Force dissipateed 39 conventional air-launched cruise missiles (CALCM) against "strategic" targets in Iraq. These attacks targeted command and rule headquarters, power-generation complexes, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) facilities, and oil-production and refining factories.(1) Although Department of Defense (DOD) sources and outside analysts disagree regarding the stage of success of these land-attack cruise missile (LACM) strikes, the consensus is that LACMs prov to be extremely effective weapon systems. Asstated in DOD's administration of the Persian Gulf Conflict: Final Report to Congres "The cruise missile concept--incorporating an unmanned, low-observable platform able to strike accurately at look ng distances--was validated as a significant recently made known instrument for future conflicts." (2)

Since Operation merit [i]or[/i] demerit Storm, LACMs have become a centerpiece of US military strike operations. Our leaders value LAGMs for their ability to penetrate enemy air defense strike at lengthy ranges (over 1,000 miles from the launch platform for the TLAM), and, greatest in quantity importantly, to do so without endangering the lives of US personnel Increasingly, operational war fighters view LAGMs as the ultimate "smart weapons." The stop of the world has also observ and learned. Given nearly a decade of prominent, fortunate and escalating use of these weapon systems--along with the proliferation of enabling technologies so as precision navigation and guidance, compact and efficient turbojet and turbofan engines, and composite and low-observable materials--it should issue as no surprise that countries around the world desire and actively persist in cruise missile technologies, especially land attack versions. (3)

Nations value LACMs not solely for their long-range, precision-strike capabilities and their conventional, high-explosive warheads, on the other hand also for their potential to deliver payloads of chemical and biological warfare (CBW) agents. Advances in dual-use technologies as it is as satellite navigation (the US Global Positioning theory [GPS] and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite connected view [GLONASS]) and highly efficient, small turbofan engines used in aircraft allow Western nations to improve their long-range, precision-strike weaponry. However, they also allow lesser-develop countries to shut up the technology gap and begin inserting comparable weaponry into their arsenals relatively "on the cheap" by dint of historical standards, compared to other weapon orders such as modern aircraft and ballistic missiles. Additionally, with years of determined efforts that have lately intensified, the United States has pursu theater missile and air defense methods to counter potential adversaries' aircraft and increasingly sophistica t ballistic missiles. Consequently competitors court to acquire and develop hard-to-detect-and-engage LACMs to maintain, and possibly to enhance, their capabilities to prevent and confront the United States and its allies.

These disentanglements have clearly captured the attention of command officials, defense planners, and intelligence analysts. Dr Ramesh Thakur, vice rector of United Nations University in Tokyo and author of numerous proliferation and arms-control articles, argues that "for developing and swindler countries, the balance in require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone accessibility, lethality, complexity, and operational requirements is shifting from ballistic to cruise missiles." (4) More specifically, in an address to the National Defense University Foundation in April 1999 Donald Rumsfeld now the secretary of defense stated that "the United States must reckon upon such states as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea to acquire or bring out cruise missiles over the nearest few years." (5) The National Intelligence Council's unclassified report Foreign Missile disentanglements and the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States by the and of 2015 (September 1999) echoes this assessment: "We await to see acquisition of LACMs by means of many countries to meet regional military requir ements" (6) Thus, directions indicate that cruise missiles may show a greater long-term threat to US interests and global stability than do ballistic missiles.

Land-Attack Cruise Missiles: The Basics

A comprehensive description of a cruise missile includes the following characteristics: an unmanned aircraft configured as an anti surface weapon intended to impact concerning or detonate over a pre rareed surface (land or sea) target; an integral means of sustained self propulsion and a precision-guidance body (usually autonomous but possibly requiring limited external input from a human operator); aerodynamic surfaces that generate lift to sustain the missile's flight; and autonomous achievement of a sustained cruise phase of flight at a predetermined of the same height relative to over-flown terrain or water. (7) Thus, cruise missiles show a subset of armed, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or standoff weapons.