Sparrow missiles are considered the standard when it comes to U.S. Navy and NATO warships. These missiles can easily take down airborne and land threats. Although many attributes of the Sea Sparrow Missile are classified, we know that they were initially developed in the ‘70s and have been substantially improved since.
Sparrow missiles are usually the first weapons employed to counter oncoming threats on U.S. territory. They are highly accurate and are fitted with effective warheads. Most foreign hostile vehicles that get hit by one of these will explode into a million pieces before they ever knew what hit them, which makes them strong deterrents!
The Penguin Anti-Ship Missile
While they may sound cute, Penguin anti-ship missiles are far from it. Designed to be launched from Seahawk helicopters, they allow Navy choppers to easily take out hostile ships while staying in a safe range. Each missile weighs about 835 pounds and holds a 275-pound warhead that can sink even the biggest and baddest ship.
These advanced missiles can automatically dodge hostile threats in-mid flight, effectively circumventing their enemy’s defense systems. Penguins are built for crushing armor-plated targets, and do so with a delayed explosion mechanism. They first penetrate an enemy ship, and only detonate once they are inside its cabin. Go Penguins!
The Electromagnetic Railgun
If you’re a fan of the Death Star, you’ll be quite excited to learn about this one. Electromagnetic Railguns are about as close as it gets to the Empire’s superweapon. These massive devices use electromagnetic forces (instead of bullets and rockets) to shoot particles at high velocity, destroying anything in their path.
Electromagnetic Railguns shoot particles 6,000 miles per hour. Engineers still have some time before these become fully functioning, as the weapon is still in developmental stage. The moment this technology is officially deployed, many of the Navy’s tactics would quickly have to get re-adjusted.
The Paveway Laser-Guided Bomb
Things were quite messy back when U.S. jets used unguided bombs to attack enemies. These would often miss targets, and potentially hurt civilians in their path. Nowadays, the Navy uses Paveway Laser-Guided Bombs. These use a precise laser-guiding system that allows them to hit very small areas with a tiny margin of error.
Paveway Laser-Guided bombs are used for destroying sensitive land targets without causing collateral damage. Half of the bombings in the Iraq War were done using Paveway Laser-Guided bombs, which helped quickly tip the scales in the United State’s favor, and were used to destroy much of Iraq’s infrastructure with minimal casualties.
The AIM-120 AMRAAM Missile
AIM-120 AMRAAMs are the best missiles in aerial combat scenarios. The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force have purchased more than 14,000 of these in recent years. An upgraded version of the AIM-120 missile, the AIM-260 JATM, is currently in production. These newer versions sport an increased range and decreased susceptibility to electronic signal jamming.
AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles can be launched in all weathers, and are “fire and forget” weapons, which means most of the work done automatically once a target has been fired at. These weigh about 335 pounds per missile, and can cost anywhere from $300,000 each, up to $1,786,000 for the most advanced models.