Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground Weapons Development

摘要

Com bat air power is all about delivering effect - reliably and powerfullyhitting airborne or surface targets with accuracy and precision. W ithouteffective, accurate, reliable weapons, a fighter or bom ber is of little practical use. But history is littered with great com bat aircraft that have beenlet down by poor arm am ent - the early SPITFIRE was armed with machineguns whose calibre was too small to guarantee bringing down an enemyaircraft; US fighters in Vietnam toted missiles that were unlikely to hit theirtarget; and numerous bom bers have found them selves delivering bom bsthat lacked destructive effect, or that proved im possible to deliver withprecision. Solving these kinds of problem s has been a continuous threadin the developm ent o f new weapons, and as one set of problem s has beensolved, another set will inevitably appear.