Cruise missile defense

Cruise missile defense encompasses a range of doctrine, systems, and techniques for detecting, tracking, and neutralizing cruise missiles and their launching platforms. Mechanisms used for neutralization may be kinetic (i.e., causing physical damage or destruction) or nonkinetic (e.g., electronic warfare and interference with computers or networks).

There will be variations depending on both the launch (air, sea, land, underwater) and target (land, sea) environments for the cruise missile system. With variations for the range of the cruise missile system, defense engagement can take place in any or all of several phases:

• Prior to launch
• During the approach to the target area
• In the immediate target area

Cruise missile defense has both similarities and differences to ballistic missile defense. Both can attack the launcher, but cruise missile launchers are far more likely to be mobile than ballistic missile launchers. Ballistic missiles have an additional boost phase engagement phase that generally does not apply to cruise missiles. Terminal defense against cruise missiles is a different problem than against ballistic missiles; cruise missiles are slower but take much more unpredictable flight paths.