what is ballastic missile ?

Answer 1

I presume that you meant ballistic not ballastic :) .
1. Ballistics (Greek. ba'llein, "throw") is the science that deals with the motion, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, and of course missiles.

2. A ballistic missile is a missile, with a rocket engine, that follows an parabolic, sub-orbital, ballistic flight path with the objective of delivering a warhead to a particular target.

3. Simply put a ballistic missile is an aim-and-shoot device which is like an artillery shell; however hue of its rocket propulsion it has a significantly longer range. Like a shell ones propelled to a certain height it falls on its own towards the target area. The range of an artillery shell is about 50km while the range of a ballistic missile is over 12000 km (that is more then one quarter around the world). However as the range increases so is their guidance capability. The short range (SRBM) are very similar to V2 (see below) and their range is just above 1000 km the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) is over 12000.

4. Historically Germans were the first to employ a ballistic missile called V-2. They used it to bomb London during the second half of WW II. Check the site provided below it has plenty of interesting information.

I hope it answers your question.

Answer 2

A cruise missile flies like an airplane, with wings to support it and an engine running all the time to push it.

A ballistic missile just gets thrown, like a rock. The rocket engine fires for maybe 5 minutes or so, getting the missile up to very high speed in the first few miles, and after that there is no power at all. The missile just coasts all the other miles, maybe thousands of miles, to the target.

Answer 3

Normally referred to as ICBMs, the 'ballistic' part refers to the path that they take. They don't fly like airplanes, they go up, reach a peak, and fall back down along a parabolic path.

Now, they are not completely ballistic and un-guided. The engines of an ICBM will perform targeting corrections near the end of the initial burn and then again at the high point of the parabola. This is the most efficient place to make course correction.

Since just about all ICBMs in the US and Russian arsenal have MIRV capability, somewhere along the fall back to earth, several independently targeted warheads will separate and rocket toward their final destinations.

This type of missile can be differentiated from the 'cruise' type missiles by the fact that cruise missiles use wings to give them lift along their flight path and they are powered throughout. Ballistic missiles spend the vast majority of their trip unpowered and flying like a rock.

Answer 4

A missile that reaches its target without guidance. It follows a "ballastic" path, meaning that after the initial launch phase, gravity does all the work. This is the opposite of a "guided missle".

Answer 5

a missle launched from the ground, or subsea, that can travel ALMOST to space, and then return and land on some other part of the world.
typically carries nuclear or biochemical warfare type payloads.

Answer 6

a missile with balls.