• remon@ani.social
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    2 months ago

    An artillery shell is a ballistic missile.

    No, missiles have a motor.

    A patriot missile can shoot down an airplane, but they have never been used against airliners. I don’t think the iron dome has ever even been deployed against aircraft.

    Not am I aware of, no.

    • absentbird@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Maybe there’s some military specifics I don’t understand, but ballistic basically means unguided, and a missile is either a self propelled projectile or a forcibly propelled projectile. Wouldn’t that include artillery? Like an arrow can be called a missile, that’s where the term comes from.

        • absentbird@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          It can historically refer to any weapon which is shot or propelled towards a target; slings, arrows, magic missile, etc. but I guess that would be confusing with all the modern ordinance in use.