Fire-and-forget



Fire-and-forget is a term for a type of missile guidance which does not require further guidance after launch such as illumination of the target or wire guidance, and can hit its target without the launcher being in line-of-sight of the target. This is an important property for a guided weapon to have, since a person or vehicle that lingers near the target to guide the missile (using, for instance, a laser designator) is vulnerable to attack and unable to carry out other tasks.

Generally, information about the target is programmed into the missile just prior to launch. This can include coordinates, radar measurements (including velocity), or an IR image of the target. After it is fired, the missile guides itself by some combination of gyroscopes and accelerometers, GPS, organic radar, and infrared optics. Some systems offer the option of either continued input from the launch platform or fire-and-forget.

Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) are guided to the target by multiple means, such as Semi-Automatic Command to Line of Sight SACLOS and Manual Command to Line of Sight MCLOS. Laser designators/range finders are also used to designate the target for the missile to hit. But fire-and-forget missiles also have the tendency to be deflected by soft-kill systems on modern main battle tanks as well as also getting destroyed by hard-kill systems. As opposed to unguided RPGs which require a hard-kill system (a counter projectile(s) used to destroy the incoming missile), fire-and-forget missiles can be jammed by electro-optical dazzlers.

Examples
Many of these are infrared homing missiles; some of the remainder (e.g. AIM-54) are active radar guided.


 * AAM-4 (Type 99 AAM)
 * AASM HAMMER (SBU-38, -54, -64)
 * AGM-65 Maverick
 * AGM-84 Harpoon
 * AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire
 * AIM-9X Sidewinder
 * AIM-54C Phoenix
 * AIM-120 AMRAAM
 * Akash missile
 * Citefa AS-25K
 * Astra missile
 * Brimstone
 * AM39 Exocet
 * FGM-148 Javelin
 * Firestreak (1959–1988; British tail-chase infrared AAM fitted to Sea Vixen, Javelin, Lightning.)
 * HJ-9A
 * IRIS-T
 * Kh-25 (Soviet Union)
 * Kh-29D
 * Kh-35
 * Kh-59
 * LFK NG
 * MICA
 * Nag
 * PARS 3 LR
 * PL-12
 * RBS 15
 * Red Dean (1950s British active-radar AAM. Early trial firings only; cancelled before service entry.)
 * Red Top (1964–1988; British all-aspect infrared-homing missile fitted to Sea Vixen and Lightning.)
 * R-77 (RVV-AE)
 * Roketsan UMTAS
 * RIM-66 Standard SM2, blocks IIIB and IVA only
 * SM-6 Standard ERAM
 * SRAW Predator Antitank Missile
 * Type 01 LMAT
 * TUBITAK-SAGE SOM (missile) (Turkey)
 * 9M123 Khrizantema
 * 9K121 Vikhr (Soviet Union)
 * Vympel R-27
 * Vympel R-73