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Anair-to-surface missile (ASM) orair-to-ground missile (AGM) is amissile designed to be launched frommilitary aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guidedglide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common propulsion systems for air-to-surface missiles arerocket motors, usually with shorter range, and slower, longer-rangejet engines. SomeSoviet-designed air-to-surface missiles are powered byramjets, giving them both long range and high speed.
Guidance for air-to-surface missiles is typically vialaser guidance,infrared guidance,optical guidance or viasatellite guidance signals. The type of guidance depends on the type of target. Ships, for example, may be detected viapassive radar oractive radar homing, which is less effective against multiple, small, fast-moving land targets.
There is some cross-over between air-to-surface missiles andsurface-to-surface missiles. For example, there was an air-launched version of theTomahawk missile, superseded by theAGM-86 ALCM. Other missiles used in both roles include thePenguin andAGM-84 Harpoonanti-ship missiles. Many air-to-surface missiles can be used against both ships and land targets, although some must be modified to perform a different role; for example, theAGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile is a land-attack version of the Harpoon.
A major advantage of air-to-surface missiles for ground attack by aircraft is thestandoff distance they provide: missiles can be launched from a distance without coming within range of the target's air defences. Most air-to-surface missiles arefire-and-forget from a standoff distance, allowing the attacker to withdraw without approaching further after launch. Some missiles (typicallycruise missiles or anti-ship missiles) have long enough range to be launched over the horizon, finding the target autonomously.
Sub-categories of air-to-surface missiles include:
Typically, the higher and faster the launching aircraft is flying, the longer the reach of a particular missile is. For long-range missiles this difference can be relatively small, but short-range missiles (like theAGM-65 Maverick) have a much longer range when launched at altitude.
There have been examples ofair-launched ballistic missiles (Air Launched ICBM,GAM-87 Skybolt), but they are rare. Sometimes air-to-surface missiles are divided into the categories oftactical andstrategic. Typically missiles with chemical explosive or small nuclear warheads are classed as tactical, and large nuclear warheads as strategic.
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