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A ground launched cruise missile (GLCM) is an unmanned aircraft for military attack (e.g., ""pilotless bomber"/"surface-to-surface missile") which uses aerodynamic lift in flight[1] after being launched (usually by firing) from a surface (ground or sea) launcher or site. GLCMs generally used automatic flight control, some GLCMs used airburst nuclear detonations to damage the surface target,[1]:12 and GLCMs include the following:

  • Kettering Bug, a pre-WWII manned aircraft tested with remote control in the United States
  • V-1 flying bomb, "the first true operational GLCM"[1] used in 1944 for the WWII Robot Blitz
  • Republic-Ford JB-2, a US Army Air Forces variant of the V-1
  • Operation Aphrodite and Anvil aircraft, USAAF B-17 or US Navy B-24 bombers flown to targets by remote control after bailout of take-off crews
  • Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg, a planned V-1 with cockpit that became a missile when the German pilot bailed out (cf. Japanese manned V-1 models used for kamikaze)
  • KGW-1 Loon, a post-war US Navy variant of the V-1
  • MGM-1 Matador, a USAF jet-propelled missile with rocket-assisted take off (RATO) guided by MARC and preceded by 15 SSM variants[1]:9
  • Martin MGM-13 Mace, a variant of the Matador
  • Regulus I & II, USN cruise missiles
  • Snark, a USAF cruise missile
  • Navaho missile, a USAF GLCM program carried "AN/APW-11 radar transponder" avionics for tracking by a ground control radar[specify]
to allow—during the autopilot's "automatic stable flight"--command guidance by radio control via an AN/ARW-56 airborne receiver processing commands from the AN/ARW-55 transmitter at the radar station.[2]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lanning, Lt Col Randall L. (1992) (AD-A258 351 Research Report). United States Air Force Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (Report). Air War College. "MARC (Manual Airborne Radio Control). [sic] It used an AN/MSQ-I mobile ground radar set and an AN/APW-IIA airborne radar assembly (12:129). … "Mace A" … MM-1 Teracruzer … TM-61C Missile Operations Handbook, undated, published by the 701st TMW. … TM-76A Training Plan, Document No. TODO-30021, 9 Mar 61."  (In misnaming "Manual Airborne Radio Control", Lanning cites: 12. "History of USAFE, 1 Jan through 30 Jun 1957, Vol I, Narrative, 15 Nov 57".
  2. "The North American RTV-A-5/X-10". The 456th Fighter Interceptor Squadron: The Protectors of S. A. C.. last update 6/13/2009.  (cites: James N. Gibson: "The Navaho Missile Project", Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1996 & Jay Miller: "The X-Planes, X-1 to X-45", Midland Publishing, 2001
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