# rockets missiles? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991 "2003-03-21T03:27:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dcurt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@dcurt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dcurt)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/1 "2003-03-21T03:27:29Z")
I was just wondering what the difference is between a rocket and missile,as on a blackhawk helicoter. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/2 "2003-03-21T03:34:03Z")
Really there’s not all that much difference, except in terms of intended use. The term “rocket” is mainly used these days to describe a space launching vehicle, while “missile” is generally reserved for a type of rocket designed to carry an explosive payload to a target and destroy it. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/3 "2003-03-21T03:37:15Z")
I believe a missle has some form of guidance system, and a rocket does not. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/4 "2003-03-21T03:38:47Z")
Ah! Cool. [Linky Linky.](http://www.wsmr.army.mil/paopage/Pages/WU%2310.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Doc\_Nickel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@Doc\_Nickel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doc_Nickel)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/5 "2003-03-21T03:38:53Z")
Slightly more than that, in military parlance, rockets tend to be unguided- aimed only by knowing the burn time and the launch angle- and missiles tend to be guided- movable fins controlled by some system that steers the weapon to it’s target, whether it’s a location (GPS guidance) or an object (infrared or radar-guided.) ---
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/6 "2003-03-21T03:49:42Z")
With regard to helicopter armament, missiles would be a guided munition, such as the Hellfire antitank missile, while unguided rockets have been used by attack choppers, such as the Cobra or Apache. Blackhawks, generally being transport aircraft are not armed with rockets or missiles, although some special ops versions are equipped with 7.62 miniguns or the old 50 cal machine gun. These are mounted in the door openings on either side, and have no forward firing capability, unlike a gunship. ---
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/7 "2003-03-21T03:57:30Z")
I should have said gunships can use both missiles and unguided rockets while the blackhawk uses neither ---
**Author:** ![dcurt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@dcurt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dcurt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/8 "2003-03-22T01:23:50Z")
The picture that got me started on this, was a Blackhawk firing a AGM 119 penguin missile. ---
**Author:** ![Race\_Bannon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Race\_Bannon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Race_Bannon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/9 "2003-03-22T03:06:13Z")
Black Hawk is Two Words, not oneword. ---
**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/10 "2003-03-22T03:25:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Klaatu \* > \*\*I should have said gunships can use both missiles and unguided rockets while the blackhawk uses neither \*\* What??? You mean the blackhawks I’ve seen carrying and launching hellfire missles were figments of my imagination? Whatever you are reading, you might not want to put too much trust in. ---
**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/11 "2003-03-22T03:26:49Z")
It should be noted that not all missiles are rockets - a rocket carries both fuel and oxidizer, but some missiles - the tomahawk and other cruise missiles for example- use airbreathing engines (in the case of the tomahawk a turbofan engine), carrying only fuel and getting oxygen from the atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/12 "2003-03-22T04:08:18Z")
The military use of the words rocket and missile are now somewhat divorced from their original English language meaning, after a few decades of specialized use. A missile is anything in a free traveling trajectory, often ballistic, sometimes guided by internal or external controls. A rocket is a missile using a thrust generating motor, either liquid or solid fueled to gain, or maintain speed. Cruise missiles also have lift generating surfaces, like airplanes. If it flies, has no pilot, and carries an explosive, it’s called a missile. Now days, most missiles are guided by onboard computers, radar, or satellite input. Some have other types of guidance controls. Things which are shot out of guns are missiles, but militarily, they are called projectiles, to differentiate. Jets are basically similar to rockets, but don’t carry oxidizer, and require air intake to work. If it has a pilot, it’s called an aircraft. Rockets have oxidizer as an element of their fuel systems, and do not require air intake. Bombs are just things that fall out of planes, or get placed by other systems. Bombs have guidance, in some cases, and are only different from missiles in that they have no self propulsion systems. (Even that is not a guarantee, as at least one “bomb” currently in development has a rocket motor that fires after it is dropped, to achieve high speeds at impact, in order to penetrate deeply before exploding.) Unmanned Vehicles are really not much different from guided missiles, except they generally have the ability to come back, land, and be used over again. Some of them even carry explosives and some even have their own missiles. So, if you shoot it out of a barrel, it’s a projectile, if it shoots fire out it’s ass, and flies, it’s a rocket, and if it can steer, it’s a missile. More or less. Tris ---
**Author:** ![ChalkPit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@ChalkPit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChalkPit)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/13 "2003-03-22T06:38:10Z")
The UH-60L carries the Hellfire… [As you can see in this picture](http://www.sikorsky.com/Images/SAC_Sikorsky_Aircraft_Corporation/US-en/AH70-01.jpg) I’m sure I’ve also seen a picture of the missiles contained in proper containers on the pylons, rather than just ‘open’ like here. ---
**Author:** ![Race\_Bannon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Race\_Bannon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Race_Bannon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/14 "2003-03-22T19:10:42Z")
ChalkPit’s photo link notwitstanding, it is not “standard issue” for Black Hawks to carry, or attack with Hellfire missiles. It is true that it has been done experimentally, and I would not discount their use by Special Forces, but as a general rule Black Hawks are troop carriers, not attack helicopters. One problem with shooting laser-guided missles from a Black Hawk is the designator. The UH-60 does not have a targeting system or laser designator integrated into it’s systems like the Apache does. It also does not have the night vision systems that enable the Apache to work at night. Think about it, it just doesn’t make much sense to use Black Hawks to kill tanks. That’s exactly what the Apache is designed for. If you have an attack mission, you call up an Apache unit and put those guys to work - that’s what they’re trained for and equipped for. If you want to put troops, supplies, or a sling load somewhere, you call the Black Hawk guys, that’s their job. If you load the Black Hawk up with missiles, you don’t have any payload left for anything else. Probably, the main reason you’ll see photos like that is for Sikorsky to try to market their aircraft as a versitile attack/transport machine to foreign buyers. But that’s not the way the US Army uses them. ---
**Author:** ![Race\_Bannon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Race\_Bannon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Race_Bannon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/15 "2003-03-22T19:14:58Z")
I should probably point out that in the photo Chalkpit linked, you can see an orange “benie” on the top of the rotor. That’s a dead giveaway that the photo is of an experimental flight test. That benie is for flight test instrumentation, perhaps to measure loads in the rotating system. Another clue is the white helmets of the pilots. I’ve never seen an Army “line” aviator with anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![dcurt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@dcurt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dcurt)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockets-missiles/162991/16 "2003-03-23T04:00:37Z")
Thanks everyone my question was about the different between rockets and missiles, which was answered well. It was just chance that the picture I saw on google was of a Black hawk.