Shipborne Weapons - Missiles

3. Missiles
Missiles are considered one of the newer weapons to be used on ships today. Their uses include anti-surface, anti-air and even anti-submarine warfare. With their advent, naval warfare progressed from just pure on-surface to subsurface and finally above-surface warfare.
The first missiles used operationally was in WW2 with the German V-1 cruise missile and the V-2 ballistic missile.
Cruise missiles are generally powered by jets and follow a flat trajectory to its target. It didn't take long for the US and the USSR to mount such cruise missiles on their ships and the Regulus cruise missile became one of the first such operational naval missiles. The Soviets came up with the SS-N-1 Scrubber. These designs evolved into modern cruise missiles like the Harpoon, Tomahawk, and the SS-N-19 Shipwreck.
Another type of missile, the ballistic missile, follows a ballistic trajectory(that is, a parabola) from its launch point to its target. The Soviets developed the first ballistic-missile submarines, the Zulu-class, which carried modified Scud missiles. NATO responded with the Polaris. Today's naval ballistic missiles are exclusively carried on SSBNs (ballistic missile submarines), which carry modern D-5 Trident and SS-N-20 Seahawk ballistic nuclear missiles. With their immense firepower, these subs are considered one of the most powerful weapons in the world.
Antiship missiles are mostly cruise missiles with examples like the RGM-84 Harpoon, MBDA Exocet and others.
Lastly, warships also carry surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). These missiles are usually lighter than their land counterparts, examples being the SM-2 Standard, MBDA Sea Wolf and the SA-20 Gargoyle.
Missiles have become a major factor in naval warfare, with their high speed and long range forcing response times to become ever shorter. Clearly missiles will lead naval warfare into the future.