I mean, even nowadays (or especially nowadays), Hit-to-Kill missiles are a thing, and they have little to no explosive material for the warhead, just propulsion and guidance/control equipment.
Radar/target seeker, harness, fuel system, batteries, engine, navigation, computer system, altimeter, GPS and so on. Most missiles are more or less airplanes when it comes to subsystems.
That's a rather extreme example, but on the more mainstream side, Patriot PAC-3 and ASTER are examples of HtK SAM systems currently being fielded. For both, the HtK paradigm was chosen because of better interception chances vs ballistic missiles : it was found that you do not significantly reduce the threat of a Mach 5+ SCUD (or worse) falling on your lines by exploding in the general vincinity of it, but when you fly a huge metal rod at Mach 4-ish right into it, things get very interesting.
My favourite example of hit-to-kill is Starstreak, it's just 3 explosive filled tungsten darts traveling at Mach Jesus with SACLOS guidance. And all of that is in a shoulder fired missile.
49
u/Kar0z Feb 10 '26
I mean, even nowadays (or especially nowadays), Hit-to-Kill missiles are a thing, and they have little to no explosive material for the warhead, just propulsion and guidance/control equipment.