Jim Doyle wrote:
Cheers Keith. However I think these vanes are used for the bank and turn
corrections at long range, and not the short term agile 'skid' manoeuvres.
I
haven't been able to find anything on the latter so'll just guess at it
being a layman's thrust vectoring!

Hi, Jim.

I'm no missile expert, but I think what's at play here is this:

At long range, the missile makes gentle maneuvers to maintain as
much energy as possible, using body lift to generate angles. Very
little slew is all that's needed at such speeds, the change in air
flow over the body generates lift and thereby changes the flight
path (angles). It's a pretty efficient, low drag way to do business.

At close range, in the terminal phase, where agility (angle
generation) is more important than maintaining energy, the fins
actuate much more aggressively, slewing the missile body past
angles which would just generate body lift, to reorient the
airframe for a different flight path. At this point you are either
bleeding energy off during a coast intercept (like a Phoenix
missile does in long range profile), or depending on a long-burn
motor to keep up your smash.

To me, that would certainly equate to skid turns. Think of a
sprint race car drifting through a turn, versus steering through it.



Jeff