Chinese Missile News

[Hendarto]

Here is the video of Neptune constellation consists of 38 satellite and should be completed by 2028

https://twitter.com/x/status/1788096953747685788

 

[Hendarto]

I copy Beijing walker post here

China's Military Satellites Are Watching America's Every Move​

Published May 08, 2024 at 8:07 AM EDT

A Long March 3B rocket carrying the Beidou-3GEO3 satellite lifts off from China on June 23, 2020. China is challenging the U.S. monopoly on satellite tracking capability, a senior Space Force official said. STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES


China is fast challenging the United States' monopoly in space as new remote-sensing satellites have allowed Beijing to monitor American military assets globally.

"The PLA has rapidly advanced in space in a way that few people can really appreciate," Major General Gregory J. Gagnon, the Space Force's deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, said at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on May 2.

The Space Force, established by former President Donald Trump, faces challenges posed by China's rapidly transforming space capabilities.

Space has emerged as a contested domain integral to modern military operations, as countries have sought to track each other's military assets from space. Military strategists believe satellites and space-based weapons could be used to fire the first shot in future conflicts. Satellites could be used to jam an opponent's signals during an escalation of military tensions.

China established its version of the Space Force in 2015, which was placed under the hierarchy of the People's Liberation Army's Strategic Support Force (SSF). Chinese President Xi Jinping dissolved the SSF last month, and a new force called the Information Support Force was constituted to merge the SSF's existing remit with it.

China has added over 400 satellites in the past two years, from which more than half have the capability to track objects on Earth, Gagnon said at the Mitchell Institute.

"They will now—in a way that we're not comfortable talking about in America—they will be inside a rapidly expanding weapons engagement zone," Gagnon added.

Gagnon explained that China can now track U.S. military assets even when they are mobile, challenging U.S. monopoly on long-range targeting. The data collected by China's satellites can provide a precise location of military vessels on the move at sea, making their subsequent targeting during conflict easier, according to Gagnon.

"Few countries have that advantage," Gagnon said.

Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the U.S. Space Force and the U.S. State Department for comment via email.

This isn't the first time a senior U.S. Space Force official has warned about China's growing space capability.

General Bradley Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations at the U.S. Space Force, recently raised an alarm about China's exponential growth in satellite-based surveillance capability.

"The PRC has more than 470 [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] satellites feeding a robust sensor-shooter kill web," Saltzman said in March at the Mitchell Institute's Spacepower Security Forum, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The rapidly declining cost of satellite launches has also spurred a revolution in China's private satellite companies launching new satellites. Chinese companies can now share near-accurate satellite imagery of U.S. military assets on land and at sea.

In 2023, Chinese companies launched 120 commercial satellites, which made up 54 percent of all satellites sent into orbit last year, according to China's state-run news agency Xinhua.

Mino Space, a Beijing-based satellite company, recently published the images of the U.S. Norfolk Naval Base captured with its Taijing 4-03 satellite. Mino Space has emerged as a leading Chinese satellite imagery provider that occasionally showcases its satellite capability by publishing the latest visuals of U.S. military bases and assets.

Mizar Vision, a Chinese satellite imagery provider launched in 2021, has been sharing daily satellite imagery of the military assets participating in the U.S.-Philippines joint exercise, Balikatan, over the past weeks on X-like Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Mizar is closely tracking the movements of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, currently deployed in the South China Sea for joint exercises with the Philippines. It has also shared imagery of military activity around Taiwan and Japan over the past weeks.

Source:
https://www.newsweek.com/china-military-satellites-space-tracking-conflict-1898177

 

[guangdongt]

The YJ-12e anti-ship missile exported to Algeria is model B, which is the land-based version of YJ-12 and is specifically equipped with coastal defense forces. Its launch vehicle adopts a 10X10 large chassis and can perform certain off-road maneuvers. From the rear of the missile launch vehicle, it can enter the control cabin to directly launch the missile. The integration of mobile deployment and control launch greatly improves the rapid response ability and combat effectiveness of the entire missile system. A yj12B is equipped with three rectangular launch boxes, which can carry a total of three missiles。The missile weighs about 3 tons, has a cruising speed of 3 Mach, a terminal top speed of 4 Mach, and a range of over 400 kilometers. Due to the use of a ramjet engine with four axisymmetric side inlets arranged in an X-shape around the projectile body, YJ-12 missile purchased from China arrived in Algeria in 2022. Now, Algeria has publicly exposed the test launch footage of the YJ-12 missile，The YJ-12 missile exported to Algeria has a range of 290 kilometers, a full supersonic cruise at Mach 3, and a terminal at Mach 4,The YJ-12 missile adopts complex trajectory planning for saturation attacks, and has the technology of "one missile with multiple trajectories" and "large sector turn" heading. According to actual combat needs, it can choose high high, high low, and low low multi trajectory flight modes, significantly enhancing its penetration ability, hit probability, and damage effect.

 

[huanghong]

YJ12 used S maneuver to attack targets during the South China Sea exercise

 

[guangdongt]

Yj12 Partial Public Data
Terminal guidance: active radar guidance
Initial guidance: Inertial navigation and Beidou satellite navigation systems may use a data link with intermediate updates
---Warhead
Type: High explosive fragments
Weight: approximately 200 kilograms
Fuze: Delay Collision Fuze
---Propulsion system
YJ-12A and B use a solid propulsion booster section

 

[Hendarto]

I think this news has been posted before but no detail on how they do it. Interesting, How they use EW to fool the SPY radar. As I said before Satellite will be prominent in the next conflict And China has been sending satellites at a fast clip with no explanation

The laboratory has found a weakness in the US Navy's radar and could overwhelm it with its new space-based technology.​

Published: Jan 19, 2024 07:03 AM EST
A secretive lab under the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corporation has conducted simulations on how US warships could be attacked using space weapons and hypersonic missiles and published a research paper about it, the South China Morning Post has reported.

Called the Science and Technology on Electronic Information Control Laboratory, the Chengdu-based institute works on electronic warfare equipment for the Chinese military. It has successfully simulated an attack where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) catches a US warship off guard using a combination of electronic warfare and new-age hypersonic missiles.

This is one of many laboratories that have conducted such exercises. According to SCMP’s report, the researchers attempted to overwhelm an American naval fleet with a barrage of hypersonic missiles in a simulation conducted by the North University of China last year. Space weapons were not used in this simulation, and the US detected the Chinese missiles at launch.

How does the US detect missiles fired?​

The researchers based their simulation on the US military using the SPY-1D radar. Built by Lockheed Martin, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers mainly use the radar to detect long-range anti-ship missiles.

This series of radars has been operational since the 1970s, allowing China to learn about its capabilities. The laboratory’s researchers, however, claimed in a research paper that two satellites could be used to suppress the radar from different angles, creating “false alerts” and misleading the ships.

Interesting Engineering has previously reported that electronic warfare is important in strategies to counter adversaries. However, much of this technology deployment has been used in local environments. Switching to a space-based deployment strategy allows the technology to be deployed globally and over a greater combat range.

How China could surprise US fleet​

In its simulation, the laboratory researchers assumed that together with its warplanes, the combat range of a US aircraft carrier was 620 miles (1,000 km). However, the Chinese military could fire its hypersonic missiles from 745 miles (1,200 km) away and set its satellites into action.

The hypersonic missiles would head skyward for over 124 miles (200 km). At the same time, the satellite’s electronic warfare systems present over the US carriers keep suppressing their detection through radar.

In the next minutes, the hypersonic missiles would have covered the distance from their launch site and would be within striking distance (30 miles, 50 km) from the ships.

Here, the satellites would complete their mission, and jammers on the missiles would take over. Using terminal maneuvers, the missiles successfully took out their targets in the simulation.

According to the researchers, merely three satellites in low Earth orbit would be sufficient to carry out such an attack, whereas 28 such satellites would be sufficient to carry out a global strike.

Since these satellites are in lower orbits, they require less sensitive receivers and transmitter power. The signals the satellites generate are only required to crowd out the noise from reflections of launched hypersonic missiles. Since the satellites are only a few hundred kilometers away, the signal loss is also minimal.

Here is the video

​

 

[Shanlung]

China’s Formidable Missile Power Ready To Launch 10,000 Strikes​

TRUE SHOCK AND AWE - TRUE CHINA STYLE
THOSE THAT WANT TO BE CHINA ENEMY, OR TO STAND WITH CHINA ENEMY
OR TO BOOM BIG GUNS BOUGHT FROM OTHER COUNTRIES ACROSS SOUTH TIBET BORDER
BE PREPARED TO ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR CHOICE

Imagine a nation that focuses on quality as well as quantity side by side. With an impressive stockpile that includes a variety of land-based, sea-based, and air-launched missiles, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has established itself as a dominant force in the military sector and the number just does not stop growing! Today’s episode will uncover China’s formidable missile arsenal and PLA’s overall challenges, opportunities and developments in this sector.#china #chinanews #chinamilitary

Chapters

00:00 – Intro
00:57 - China’s Formidable Missile Arsenal
03:09 - But Why Is This Needed?
06:18 - Challenges & Opportunities

 

[Hendarto]

China, the first country to field Hypersonic missiles, is also the first to invent radar to detect hypersonic missiles. China dominates the Hypersonic missile field and is 2 steps ahead of the US. They built the radar and not some kind of paper

The microwave photonic radar is small and light, making it suitable for loading on to air-defence missiles or planes. It is considered by some military experts to be key technology for the next generation of fire-control radars.
Zheng and his team have built a complete radar system, including chips and transmitters, verifying the performance in a laboratory with instruments that simulate the movement of hypersonic targets in the atmosphere.

New microwave photonic radar boasts detection range of over 600km and can identify false targets, according to paper from Chinese team

Chinese scientists say they have achieved an advance in radar technology that may turn up the heat in the race for hypersonic weapons.
The project team led by Zheng Xiaoping, a professor with Tsinghua University’s department of electronic engineering, said it had built a radar capable of tracking 10 incoming hypersonic missiles at Mach 20 with unprecedented precision, and it could also identify false targets.

During ground-based simulations, the new radar showed an error of 28cm (11 inches) in estimating the distance of a missile travelling at nearly 7km (4.3 miles) per second, and it was up to 99.7 per cent accurate when estimating the missile’s speed, the team said of a feat previously thought to be impossible.

Generating and analysing radar signals with precision for measurement requires electrons to move at extremely high speeds, which can potentially burn out the circuit boards.
However, Zheng’s team innovated by incorporating lasers into the radar, enabling information transmission between key nodes to reach the speed of light.

As a result, the radar system could generate and process microwave signals much more complex than before, precisely measuring ultra-high-speed objects for the first time.
This new microwave photonic radar boasts a detection range of over 600km, Zheng and his collaborators from Guangxi University said in a peer-reviewed paper. It was published on May 24 in the Chinese-language journal, Optical Communication Technology.

The microwave photonic radar is small and light, making it suitable for loading on to air-defence missiles or planes. It is considered by some military experts to be key technology for the next generation of fire-control radars.
The United States, which strives to narrow the gap with China in hypersonic weapons, tested an air-launched hypersonic missile on Guam in the Western Pacific in March.

This test was perceived by some Western military observers as a targeted response to China, showing the US military’s ability to attack Chinese coastal cities with its high-penetration weapon.

Hypersonic weapons pose a greater challenge for interception than traditional ballistic missiles. They are not only faster, but can make unpredictable manoeuvres, enabling them to penetrate air-defence networks.
While new interceptor missiles and laser weapons have the potential to destroy incoming hypersonic weapons, they require precise target position and velocity parameters to succeed.

According to a report released last year by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, one of the most vexing issues for the Pentagon is the challenge to obtain a fire-control radar that can track hypersonic targets with high precision for interceptor missile systems.

“If you have more precise data, you could use an interceptor that maybe wouldn’t need to manoeuvre as much, and could be cheaper,” said Masao Dahlgren, the report’s author with the CSIS Missile Defence Project, in an interview with spacenews.com in December.

Zheng and his team have built a complete radar system, including chips and transmitters, verifying the performance in a laboratory with instruments that simulate the movement of hypersonic targets in the atmosphere.

 

[Oscar]

let’s see how long it takes to develop a decent operational product with this - Pakistan should be interested.

 

[nibba]

waowww!

this is definitely real

 

[Khansaheeb]

China, the first country to field Hypersonic missiles, is also the first to invent radar to detect hypersonic missiles. China dominates the Hypersonic missile field and is 2 steps ahead of the US. They built the radar and not some kind of paper

The microwave photonic radar is small and light, making it suitable for loading on to air-defence missiles or planes. It is considered by some military experts to be key technology for the next generation of fire-control radars.
Zheng and his team have built a complete radar system, including chips and transmitters, verifying the performance in a laboratory with instruments that simulate the movement of hypersonic targets in the atmosphere.

New microwave photonic radar boasts detection range of over 600km and can identify false targets, according to paper from Chinese team

Chinese scientists say they have achieved an advance in radar technology that may turn up the heat in the race for hypersonic weapons.
The project team led by Zheng Xiaoping, a professor with Tsinghua University’s department of electronic engineering, said it had built a radar capable of tracking 10 incoming hypersonic missiles at Mach 20 with unprecedented precision, and it could also identify false targets.

During ground-based simulations, the new radar showed an error of 28cm (11 inches) in estimating the distance of a missile travelling at nearly 7km (4.3 miles) per second, and it was up to 99.7 per cent accurate when estimating the missile’s speed, the team said of a feat previously thought to be impossible.

Generating and analysing radar signals with precision for measurement requires electrons to move at extremely high speeds, which can potentially burn out the circuit boards.
However, Zheng’s team innovated by incorporating lasers into the radar, enabling information transmission between key nodes to reach the speed of light.

As a result, the radar system could generate and process microwave signals much more complex than before, precisely measuring ultra-high-speed objects for the first time.
This new microwave photonic radar boasts a detection range of over 600km, Zheng and his collaborators from Guangxi University said in a peer-reviewed paper. It was published on May 24 in the Chinese-language journal, Optical Communication Technology.

The microwave photonic radar is small and light, making it suitable for loading on to air-defence missiles or planes. It is considered by some military experts to be key technology for the next generation of fire-control radars.
The United States, which strives to narrow the gap with China in hypersonic weapons, tested an air-launched hypersonic missile on Guam in the Western Pacific in March.

This test was perceived by some Western military observers as a targeted response to China, showing the US military’s ability to attack Chinese coastal cities with its high-penetration weapon.

Hypersonic weapons pose a greater challenge for interception than traditional ballistic missiles. They are not only faster, but can make unpredictable manoeuvres, enabling them to penetrate air-defence networks.
While new interceptor missiles and laser weapons have the potential to destroy incoming hypersonic weapons, they require precise target position and velocity parameters to succeed.

According to a report released last year by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, one of the most vexing issues for the Pentagon is the challenge to obtain a fire-control radar that can track hypersonic targets with high precision for interceptor missile systems.

“If you have more precise data, you could use an interceptor that maybe wouldn’t need to manoeuvre as much, and could be cheaper,” said Masao Dahlgren, the report’s author with the CSIS Missile Defence Project, in an interview with spacenews.com in December.

Zheng and his team have built a complete radar system, including chips and transmitters, verifying the performance in a laboratory with instruments that simulate the movement of hypersonic targets in the atmosphere.

Any radar can detect hypersonic missiles, the main issue is can you shoot them down fast enough.

 

[Hendarto]

Any radar can detect hypersonic missiles, the main issue is can you shoot them down fast enough.

That is not true did you read the article they overcame ghosting and other problems? Nobody as far as I know invented radar to track hypersonic missiles. Knowing where the missile is, half of the job is done. Making hypersonic killer missiles is run off the mill but guidance and fire control are difficult if not impossible. So yeah it is a milestone

 

[Deino]

all related threads merged

 

[ThelastDefense]

The DF-26B allows China to target US Navy warships operating near regions China considers to be within its sphere of influence. This capability means that all those expensive US Navy warships—notably aircraft carriers—will be vulnerable to attack from the DF-26B. The DF-26B carries the nickname “carrier killer.”

-This intermediate-range ballistic missile allows China to target U.S. Navy warships and critical military bases such as Guam.

-By leveraging these missiles, China aims to keep U.S. forces at bay during any conflict over Taiwan, thus enhancing its chances of successfully annexing the island. The U.S. must urgently reassess its defense strategies in the Indo-Pacific to counter this growing threat.


China’s DF-26B: The ‘Carrier Killer’ Threatening U.S. Naval Dominance
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been led by a cadre of strategists who believe that it is their right and a paramount national security concern to annex neighboring Taiwan as well as to push their military’s influence deeper into the Pacific Ocean.

The biggest hurdle to such an ambitious goal has been the United States Armed Forces. Specifically, given the geography of the region, the US Navy’s power projection has always been a complicating factor for Chinese strategists.

After many years of thinking about this problem, finally, China’s military may have worked out a solution that should trouble every US war planner.

Beijing figured out long ago that any conflict with the West over Taiwan, for example, would be waged closer to China’s shores than America’s. And since most of China’s possible targets, notably Taiwan, are all reliant upon the US military for their defense, China’s forces would enjoy the equivalent of home-field advantage.

The DF-26B: China's Game-Changing Missile Arsenal Explained
The Dong Feng (DF)-26B is an intermediate-range ballistic missile that is a variant of the DF-26. This is an antiship ballistic missile version of the DF-26, which is specifically designed to reach targets as far afield as the US-controlled island of Guam. Since 2009, Guam has become the epicenter of US military activity stationed in what is now known as the Indo-Pacific. That island, which is about 4,000 kilometers from China’s shores, is home to a wide range of American military systems and personnel. The airfields of Guam, for instance, will play a critical role in any US military engagement with China—which many experts believe is coming soon.

The DF-26 would allow for Chinese forces to target those fixed positions and remove Guam as a base for the Americans in the event war between China and the United States over Taiwan erupts.

From a “Carrier Killer” to a “Ship Killer”
The DF-26B allows China to target US Navy warships operating near regions China considers to be within its sphere of influence. This capability means that all those expensive US Navy warships—notably aircraft carriers—will be vulnerable to attack from the DF-26B. The DF-26B carries the nickname “carrier killer.”

A 2022 United States Department of Defense analysis of China’s missile capabilities indicates “significant increases across the board” in terms of China’s missile arsenal. China increased the number of intermediate-range ballistic missiles, like the DF-26B from 300 in 2021, to 500 just a year later. By now, they must have over a thousand of these systems. That’s more than enough to stymie any US Navy attempt to bring its forces closer to Chinese shores, during the outbreak of war.

And that’s the point. China doesn’t need to fight the US Navy directly. Beijing’s forces just needs to keep the bulk of American military power back long enough for their forces to achieve their objectives. It’s all about playing keep-away. In so doing, without a consistent, reliable US military intervention directed against a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, China’s forces will have the opportunity to run roughshod over the region.

A 2022 assessment from Business Insider outlines how, “There are about 250 [DF-26] launchers that are able to be reloaded, as there are an estimated two missiles for every launcher, meaning China could quickly overwhelm an adversary’s defenses with a barrage of DF-26s, which China says is capable against large and medium-sized ships.” In fact, there are so many DF-26 launches scattered throughout China’s defensive perimeter that these weapons are more than just carrier killers. They’re general “ship killers,” too, according to Tom Shugart of the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.

Bottom line: once China decides to go into Taiwan and take the island for itself, the US military will find itself unable to effectively project power in defense of Taiwan. The longer that the US military is unable to reliably deploy its forces in defense of Taiwan; the less that China fears or respects the United States, the more likely the chance is that the PRC will defeat America. Washington must do a serious rethinking of its force posture in the Indo-Pacific and what it is willing to sacrifice in defense of Taiwan

 

[BP2]

The DF-26B allows China to target US Navy warships operating near regions China considers to be within its sphere of influence. This capability means that all those expensive US Navy warships—notably aircraft carriers—will be vulnerable to attack from the DF-26B. The DF-26B carries the nickname “carrier killer.”

-This intermediate-range ballistic missile allows China to target U.S. Navy warships and critical military bases such as Guam.

-By leveraging these missiles, China aims to keep U.S. forces at bay during any conflict over Taiwan, thus enhancing its chances of successfully annexing the island. The U.S. must urgently reassess its defense strategies in the Indo-Pacific to counter this growing threat.


China’s DF-26B: The ‘Carrier Killer’ Threatening U.S. Naval Dominance
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been led by a cadre of strategists who believe that it is their right and a paramount national security concern to annex neighboring Taiwan as well as to push their military’s influence deeper into the Pacific Ocean.

The biggest hurdle to such an ambitious goal has been the United States Armed Forces. Specifically, given the geography of the region, the US Navy’s power projection has always been a complicating factor for Chinese strategists.

After many years of thinking about this problem, finally, China’s military may have worked out a solution that should trouble every US war planner.

Beijing figured out long ago that any conflict with the West over Taiwan, for example, would be waged closer to China’s shores than America’s. And since most of China’s possible targets, notably Taiwan, are all reliant upon the US military for their defense, China’s forces would enjoy the equivalent of home-field advantage.

The DF-26B: China's Game-Changing Missile Arsenal Explained
The Dong Feng (DF)-26B is an intermediate-range ballistic missile that is a variant of the DF-26. This is an antiship ballistic missile version of the DF-26, which is specifically designed to reach targets as far afield as the US-controlled island of Guam. Since 2009, Guam has become the epicenter of US military activity stationed in what is now known as the Indo-Pacific. That island, which is about 4,000 kilometers from China’s shores, is home to a wide range of American military systems and personnel. The airfields of Guam, for instance, will play a critical role in any US military engagement with China—which many experts believe is coming soon.

The DF-26 would allow for Chinese forces to target those fixed positions and remove Guam as a base for the Americans in the event war between China and the United States over Taiwan erupts.

From a “Carrier Killer” to a “Ship Killer”
The DF-26B allows China to target US Navy warships operating near regions China considers to be within its sphere of influence. This capability means that all those expensive US Navy warships—notably aircraft carriers—will be vulnerable to attack from the DF-26B. The DF-26B carries the nickname “carrier killer.”

A 2022 United States Department of Defense analysis of China’s missile capabilities indicates “significant increases across the board” in terms of China’s missile arsenal. China increased the number of intermediate-range ballistic missiles, like the DF-26B from 300 in 2021, to 500 just a year later. By now, they must have over a thousand of these systems. That’s more than enough to stymie any US Navy attempt to bring its forces closer to Chinese shores, during the outbreak of war.

And that’s the point. China doesn’t need to fight the US Navy directly. Beijing’s forces just needs to keep the bulk of American military power back long enough for their forces to achieve their objectives. It’s all about playing keep-away. In so doing, without a consistent, reliable US military intervention directed against a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, China’s forces will have the opportunity to run roughshod over the region.

A 2022 assessment from Business Insider outlines how, “There are about 250 [DF-26] launchers that are able to be reloaded, as there are an estimated two missiles for every launcher, meaning China could quickly overwhelm an adversary’s defenses with a barrage of DF-26s, which China says is capable against large and medium-sized ships.” In fact, there are so many DF-26 launches scattered throughout China’s defensive perimeter that these weapons are more than just carrier killers. They’re general “ship killers,” too, according to Tom Shugart of the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.

Bottom line: once China decides to go into Taiwan and take the island for itself, the US military will find itself unable to effectively project power in defense of Taiwan. The longer that the US military is unable to reliably deploy its forces in defense of Taiwan; the less that China fears or respects the United States, the more likely the chance is that the PRC will defeat America. Washington must do a serious rethinking of its force posture in the Indo-Pacific and what it is willing to sacrifice in defense of Taiwan

Big big doubt in the west about the reality and the real accuracy of such a weapon.
Why? because it needs a seeker, and a ballistic warhead, during the reentry, is over heated and surronded by plasma so no IR seeker possible (heat) and EM seeker not possible with plasma.

Or the warhead is higly braked for the last part of the trajectory to calm the heat and avoid plasma. But it is now a slow moving target, easily tracked by AEGIS radar and SM2 or 6 missiles.

Never forget that a carrier is not so easily targeted in the ocean, run at 20knots and can change of direction between the (possible?) detection and the arrival on target of the missile (loop detection=>fire approval=>real fire=>time of travel=>seeker search and finally target reached)

Except if the missile is fitted with a nuc warhead.... but it's another history.