An air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) is a

cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...

that is launched from a

military aircraft A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat: * Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equipm ...

. Current versions are typically

standoff weapon Standoff weapons are missiles or bombs which may be launched from a distance sufficient to allow attacking personnel to evade the effect of the weapon or defensive fire from the target area. Typically, they are used against land- and sea-based tar ...

s which are used to attack predetermined land targets with conventional,

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: * Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics *Nuclear space *Nuclear ...

thermonuclear Thermonuclear fusion is the process of atomic nuclei combining or “fusing” using high temperatures to drive them close enough together for this to become possible. There are two forms of thermonuclear fusion: ''uncontrolled'', in which the re ...

payloads. Specific types of ALCMs (current, past and under development) include: *

AGM-28 Hound Dog The North American Aviation AGM-28 Hound Dog was a supersonic, turbojet-propelled, nuclear armed, air-launched cruise missile developed in 1959 for the United States Air Force. It was primarily designed to be capable of attacking Soviet gr ...

(USA) *

AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER The AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response) is an advanced stand off precision-guided, air-launched cruise missile produced by Boeing Defense, Space & Security for the United States Armed Forces and their allies. Deve ...

(USA) *

AGM-86 ALCM The AGM-86 ALCM is an American subsonic air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) built by Boeing and operated by the United States Air Force. This missile was developed to increase the effectiveness and survivability of the Boeing B-52H Stratofortre ...

(USA) *

AGM-129 ACM The AGM-129 ACM (Advanced Cruise Missile) was a low-observable, subsonic, turbofan-powered, air-launched cruise missile originally designed and built by General Dynamics and eventually acquired by Raytheon Missile Systems. Prior to its withdraw ...

(USA) * AGM-158 JASSM (USA) *

AGM-158C LRASM The AGM-158C LRASM (Long Range Anti-Ship Missile) is a stealthy anti-ship cruise missile developed for the United States Air Force and United States Navy by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The LRASM was intended to pionee ...

(USA) * Air-Sol Moyenne Portée ASMP (France) *ASN4G (France) * BrahMos (India/Russia) *

BrahMos-NG The BrahMos (also designated as PJ-10)BrahMos-II BrahMos-II or BrahMos-2 or BrahMos Mach II (note:Not to be confused with the BrahMos block II) is a hypersonic cruise missile currently under joint development by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's NPO Mashinostroye ...

(India/Russia) *

CJ-10 The CJ-10 () is a second-generationGormley et al.: p.102 Chinese ground-based land-attack missile.United States Office of the Secretary of Defense: Annual Report To Congress 2015, p.39 It is derived from the Kh-55 missile. It is reportedly manufa ...

(China) *

Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ar, دليلة, Dalīlah; grc, label= Greek, Δαλιδά, Dalidá) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved ...

(Israel) *

Hatf-VIII (Ra'ad) The Ra'ad ( ur, رعد, "Thunder") is a Pakistani air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) . The missile was first tested in August 2007. Development and design The Ra'ad is a joint project developed by Pakistan Air Force's Air Weapons Complex and ...

(Pakistan) *

Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile The Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) is a scramjet-powered hypersonic air-launched cruise missile project, the successor of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) and the SCIFiRE hypersonic programs. Technology developed for t ...

USA *

Ra'ad-II The Ra'ad-II ( ur, رعد-۲,"thunder-2") missile is a Pakistani long-range ALCM which is derived from the Ra'ad ALCM. It was first publicly unveiled on the Pakistan Day military parade on 23 March 2017, The missile was tested continuously with ...

(Pakistan) *

Joint Strike Missile The Joint Strike Missile (JSM) is a multi-role, air-launched missile under development by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) and American company Raytheon Missiles & Defense. The JSM is derived from the Naval Strike Missile. ...

(Norway/USA) *

Kalibr The 3M-54 Kalibr, (Калибр, caliber), also referred to it as 3M54-1 Kalibr, 3M14 Biryuza (Бирюза, turquoise), ( NATO reporting name SS-N-27 Sizzler and SS-N-30A) is a family of Russian cruise missiles developed by the Novator Design ...

-A (Russia) *

KEPD 350 Taurus KEPD 350 is a Swedish-German air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by Taurus Systems and used by Germany, Spain, and South Korea. Taurus Systems GmbH is a partnership between MBDA Deutschland GmbH (formerly LFK) and Saab Bofors Dyna ...

(Germany/Sweden) *

Kh-20 The Raduga Kh-20 (NATO reporting name: AS-3 Kangaroo) was an air launched cruise missile armed with a thermonuclear warhead which was developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Kh-20 was designed to be air-launched. Background Kh-20 ...

(USSR) *

Kh-32 Kh-32 (russian: Х-32) is a Russian supersonic air-launched cruise missile with a range of 600–1000 km developed by the MKB Raduga from the Kh-22. The missile was accepted to service in 2016 as armament for the Tu-22M3M bombers. Histor ...

(Russia) *

Kh-35 The Zvezda Kh-35 (russian: Х-35 , AS-20 'Kayak') is a Soviet turbojet subsonic cruise anti-ship missile. The missile can be launched from helicopters, surface ships and coastal defence batteries with the help of a rocket booster, in which c ...

(Russia) * Kh-55/Kh-555 (USSR/Russia) *

Kh-59 The Kh-59 ''Ovod'' (russian: Х-59 Овод ' Gadfly'; AS-13 'Kingbolt') is a Russian TV-guided cruise missile with a two-stage solid-fuel propulsion system and 200 km range. The Kh-59M ''Ovod-M'' (AS-18 'Kazoo') is a variant with a bigger war ...

(USSR/Russia) *

Kh-61 The P-800 Oniks (russian: П-800 Оникс; en, Onyx), also known in export markets as Yakhont (russian: Яхонт; en, ruby), is a Soviet / Russian supersonic anti-ship cruise missile developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a ramjet version of ...

(USSR/Russia) * Kh-101/102 (Russia) *

KSR-5 The Raduga KSR-5 (NATO reporting name AS-6 Kingfish) was a long-range, air-launched cruise missile and anti ship missile developed by the Soviet Union. It was essentially a scaled down version of the Kh-22 'Kitchen', built to be carried by ...

(USSR) *

LRSO (Long Range Stand Off Weapon) The AGM-181 Long Range Stand Off Weapon (LRSO) is a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile under development by Raytheon Technologies that will replace the AGM-86 ALCM. Development As of August 24, 2017, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin received ...

(USA) * MICLA-BR (Brazil) *

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus ...

(France/UK) *

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Saber A sabre (French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as the ...

(UAE) * SOM (Turkey) * Soumar (Iran) *

Storm Shadow Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French low-observable, long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA. Storm Shadow is the weapon's British appellation. In French service, it is ...

(France/UK) * Ya-Ali (Iran) * 3M-51 Alfa (Russia) * 3M22 Zircon (Russia) * 10Kh (USSR) *

Wan Chien The Wan Chien (; Tâi-lô: bān-kiàm) is an air to ground cruise missile developed and produced by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) of Taiwan. Design and development It partly resembles the AGM-154 Joint Sta ...

(Taiwan)

References

Cruise missiles {{Missile-stub

See also

References