Missiles in their many forms changed warfare starting with siege weapons, small arms, RPGs, and rockets through artillery and mortars to semi- and fully-autonomous torpedoes and cruise missiles.

☐ INDIRECT / BALLISTIC / GRAVITY WEAPONS
Combatants aim siege weapon and artillery fire, grenades, mortars, and rockets accounting for ballistic trajectories and typically require a number of missiles fire to “zero-in” on specific targets.

Attackers must anticipate, measure, or combine range, winds, missile mass, target motion, and many other factors to successfully hit.

Skilled spotters and technological guides can greatly aid indirect or ballistic fire effectiveness.

☐ DIRECT FIRE WEAPONS
Combatants aim direct fire weapons such as firearms, rockets, or energy weapons directly at their targets with smaller accounting for factors similar to ballistic trajectory attacks.

☐ GUIDED OR AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS
Eventually combat advanced to the point of combatant unleashing semi- and fully-autonomous killers at their opponents.

The success or failure of guided or autonomous weapon attacks come in two stages.

Initial launch conditions provide a base of success or failure of the launch.

Once successfully launched, the guided or autonomous weapon characteristics assume responsibility for the ultimate success or failure of the attack.

◢ Ranged Weapons
◢ Explosive Weapons

▲ Chronology